The Boys on the Bus

So there they were. Nineteen of them. Lacrosse players and their coaches. Big, strong, fit, healthy and hungry. Very hungry.

They arrived on a Greyhound bus. Watching them get off the bus was like watching Shriners clowns climb out of a Volkswagon beetle…except there were more of them and they were bigger….much, much bigger.

We knew they were coming. And we knew we were going to feed them.

So, we went to Sam’s to buy “in quantity,” as they say. The pickle jar alone was too heavy for me to pick up.

We’d been warned that they eat a lot….a whole lot.

Question: What’s a lot?

Answer: Think big and then add more….a lot more.

So we did. We bought 60 hamburgers, 40 hot dogs, 100 cookies, many pounds of mac and cheese, dozens of devilled eggs, jars of chili con queso, tons of fruit and sacks and sacks of chips and pretzels.

Nicer young men I’ve never met. To a one they were thoughtful, appreciative, (yes, cute, too). When they arrived, we gave them Easter baskets and sent them on an egg hunt. We were prepared for groans but they smiled and took off like rockets in search of plastic eggs. The one who got the golden egg with real money in it shared it with his teammates.

The fact that one of them is my grandson didn’t sway me one little bit. I did do a little of his laundry but that was his only perk.

When dinnertime came, they ate it all. Every bite of it. Gone.

If only we’d known, we woulda bought more.

We certainly coulda bought more.

We definitely shoulda bought more.

My reward….and it was a great one…was that each of them gave me a hug and a thank you as they climbed back on the bus and took off.

They won their game the next night. That was the icing on the cake.

Obviously, we shoulda bought one of those, too. A big one. A great big one. What were we thinking?