TheBanyanTree: It's a Dream Come True

[Margaret R. Kramer]

Our grass is brown wire.  Our trees’ leaves are shriveling up and turning
yellow.  The three week drought was broken the other night by an intense
thunderstorm.  It helped, but we’re also oppressively hot.  We might even
get to 100 degrees today.  I’m not a big fan of air conditioning, but this
is when I say thank goodness for it.  It keeps us sane.

It was hot yesterday and of course, that’s because we had our company
picnic.  It was held at Cedar Lake Farms, which is about a 45 minute drive
from my home.  The metro area is also stretching south and while driving
along formerly country roads, we saw the subdivisions with huge houses set
on big lots that were formerly corn fields.

We could bring family members, so my family of my son, Susan, and the boys,
as well as Ray piled into two cars, one using the air and the other not, and
drove to the farm.

As we walked into the shady grounds, my older grandson exclaimed, “I’ve
always dreamed about a place like this!”  Yes, it’s a child’s dream come
true.  There were huge inflatable things that kids could jump on.  A
pitching cage, a golf thing, a petting zoo, ponies, a balloon fight area,
snow cones, paddleboats, bumper boats, and a beach.  There was a fishing
contest and a pontoon boat ride.  And food, lots of good food.

After eating, the boys sampled all the activities while we followed behind.
Their shirts were soaked from sweating, but they moved quickly throughout
the grounds, not letting the heat slow them down.

It was my company picnic, but I was amazed at how cliquey my co-workers
became at this event.  Everyone kind of stayed in their own family unit or
within their own group of “friends” and didn’t mingle much.  I was surprised
about that – I honestly thought there would be more mingling within the
group.  I shouldn’t have been surprised, this company is probably the
cliquiest company I’ve worked for.

At my last company, the only clique was the “alcoholic clique,” the ones
that couldn’t function without some kind of alcohol.  I think because my new
company is full of attention deficit disorder geeky divas, that there is a
need for some of them to cluster together to be in the “cool” group that
they weren’t in high school.  Some people think that “cool” means being
“stuck up” and “unfriendly.”  As we walked into the park, some of my
coworkers were following us, yet no one said hello or how are you.  They
acted like they didn’t know who I was.  Strange.

I hung around with my clique.  My clique has met my family several times, so
we all knew each other.  But you know what, we’re inclusive.  If you want to
sit at our table, hey, sit down, we’ll introduce everyone and include you in
our conversation.  My son, who is extremely outgoing, sat away from us, and
not one person from my company sat down with him.  I know people can be
uptight at the beginning of a social event, but eventually the barriers
break down, and people start mixing together.  That didn’t happen with my
company.  Everyone stayed in their separate comfortable boxes.

But the boys had a great time.  Ray and Asher and Susan had a great time.
And I had a great time, cliquey people or no.

The heat wave is still on and probably will be for the next week or so. The
beach will be my second home this weekend.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net

Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.
~Albert Camus