Wholesome fun.

When I was little, my family went to Ocean City, MD every summer. We stayed right on the boardwalk in a motel. It had 2 double beds (where did my brother sleep?) and a sliding glass patio-like door that opened to the beach. There were chairs on the patio – the kind with plastic lacing that you could fall through if you stood on them. I thought it was terribly fancy. I don’t know that it was. I do know that the places that look like that now are real shit-holes. But it was a long time ago and it was probably nice.

I remember going to Phillips for dinner. Now that was fancy. And it was a long time before they opened about a jillion locations. Other highlights were salt water taffy from Candy Kitchen and ice cream and funnel cakes and…well you get the picture. Food has always been an important part of fun for my family.

But the pièce de résistance was Frontiertown. At Frontiertown, there was a Main Street shoot out. There were can-can girls in the saloon and the bad guy would burst in aninterruptpt the show. A fight would ensue. Thsheriffif and deputy would save the day. And the girls would be free to show their butts and their legs once again. Whew. Peace is restored.

But this is not a peaceful place. We took the train and robbers jumped onboard to rob the passengers and steal the gold that we were transporting. (I really was scared, but it is a bit embarrassing to admit.) We rode the stage coach and there was a fire on the path. We walked through the Indian Village and saw the skins and the crafts. We even found a cool old shack that was so crooked and confusing that we could barely make our way through it.

It was an exhausting anexhilaratingng day. Did I mention that we all got deputy badges? The metal kind that clip on by folding down the tab. Oh, and lots of the kids there had cap guns. See those often these days? I thought not. But you remember how good they smelled, don’t you?

I went back there with my guys this week. Nothing had changed.

It was like going home.