While Del and Lawrence enjoy a classic table hug, Dear Reader, I have to tell you about my Bum Boat experience. This weekend, our family took a little spontaneous trip to Chincoteague and Assateague Islands in Virginia. We saw wild ponies, played at the beach and took a great boat ride around the islands. We had a thoroughly relaxing time. Since Chincoteague is a small seashore community, I was really hoping to find a restaurant called the Bum Boat. It's Mary Worth's favorite restaurant (Ah, so many memories), and I've always wanted to eat there. I'm certain there are dozens of restaurateurs who have realized what great business sense naming your fine dining establishment the Bum Boat is, but apparently no one in Chincoteague has thought of it yet. So we settled for Steamers because it was right next door to our cheap hotel.
Steamers was great! It's one of those terrific seafood places that's just one big room with heavy wooden tables covered with brown butcher paper. It's the kind of place where they serve your entree with a mallet so you can whack your dinner on the tabletop to crack the crab shells. The place is packed so it is really noisy because there are lots of families with kids, and everyone's talking over all the pounding. And across the room, a little one-year-old kid starts kind of singing or happily kind of cooing over all the noise. He's pretty loud, and I say to my kids, "Hey, there's a singer over there." It goes on for a few minutes, and nobody is really paying attention to it.Then suddenly, at the table next to us, this lady stands up. I'm not joking. This really happened. The lady stands up and bellows, "DO YOU MIND? WE'RE TRYING TO EAT." The place goes silent. She's looking right at this family with the singing kid, and they say something I couldn't hear, and then the cranky lady says, "I DON'T CARE. HE'S YOUR KID. CONTROL HIM." I love when people without kids think a parent can "control" their child. Yes, we can comfort, distract, or when all else fails, take them out of an environment when they're being disruptive, but short of physical abuse, you don't really get to control your kids. And in this particular environment, the child was not disruptive in the least... perhaps this woman thought she was at a fancier place like the Three Trees or the Golden Corridor. Or even La Rosa! Yes, then yelling at a family with a disruptive child is totally appropriate and happens all the time. But, no, this was Steamers where the waiters wear short pants, and every table has its own tall kitchen garbage can.
The enraged lady sits down, and I'm looking at her boyfriend or husband and he's kind of looking at her. Everyone is staring at them all bug-eyed in disbelief. And then, all the noise starts up again and everyone pretty much ignores them. Although, I kept giggling about it.
A few minutes later, the lady gets up, and walks out to the restroom in the lobby. Then her husband walks out, and then they both walk out the door leaving their half-eaten salads at the table. As they go, a few people start clapping.
I missed eating at the Bum Boat, but I don't think the Bum Boat can come up with that kind of dinner entertainment!
Today's Full Strip
That kind of fun would NEVER happen at THREE TREES, as Waiter McSnooty would have booted the entire table in no time!
ReplyDeleteWanders, was the mens room right off the kitchen? Did you have an urge to call your wife on your radio/razor/camera/Palm Pilot and profess your love?
Methinks all of us, you, Vicki, Robert and the others, DREAM of living in a Worth-verse. We can only dream of loopy kitchen cabinets, smallish horses, New Country Road, pink books, yellow halters, salmon squares and kitchen tiling and Lake Pla-er, Tranquil.
zzzzz (If only in my dreams...)
Chester (curling up to the SOUTH PACIFIC cd).
Wow! There is, indeed, a bumboat restaurant. Unfortunately, (a.) it's on a bumboat, but its name is "Lotus Grill." and (b.) it's a bit of a distance from Santa Clara; it's in Singapore. Probably worth a trip, but I wonder if they serve salmon squares. You can see a picture at:
ReplyDeletehttp://italian.wunderground.com/wximage/viewsingleimage.html?mode=singleimage&orig_handle=suncorp&orig_number=24&handle=suncorp&number=25&album_id=7#slideanchor
Maybe this is all the dream of Waiter McSnooty.
ReplyDeleteWaiter/Waitress
To dream that you are a waiter or waitress, indicates that you are catering to the demands of others instead of your own. You feel that you are waiting on others hand and foot and are not being appreciated. Perhaps you need to be more assertive and stand up for yourself. Consider the quality of service that you are giving for additional significance and qualities that you may need to incorporate within your own self.
To see a waiter in your dream, suggests that you are in need of nurturance and to feel special. The dream may also be a pun and your need to be patient and wait.
and the dream ends....until tomorrow
ReplyDeleteA place called Assteague doesn't have a Bum Boat?
ReplyDeleteMarketing sadness.
It sounds like you had more fun at steamers than you would have had at the Bum Boat.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone wants to talk about MW, yesterday the pink books were gone and now they are back on the table.
And for some reason all the gray people are facing the wall except for the one nosy parker who is watching the Jonis's hug the modesty table. lol.
Who's the nosy blonde in pink? Maybe she's Lawrence's girlfriend who is now beating a hasty retreat now that his wife has shown up!
ReplyDeleteWanders, I'm picturing Mary enthralling the crowd with the tale of her hard childhood and shaming that angry woman at that restaurant.
The nosy blonde with the cheap wire frames is shocked at Lawrences logic
ReplyDelete(Of course his room is more private, unless the hotel's front desk clerk checked him into room 2000, the Skylight Ballroom)
I think she is also regretting forking over $29.95 for her copy of the pink book.
Uh, wow. Sounds like that lady needed one of Lawrence's seminars. How embarrassing for that poor guy who was with her. I bet there wasn't any spontaneous hugging across a table that night!
ReplyDeleteMy little girls are "singing" age. I am not sure what I would do if someone in a restaurant exploded at them for acting happy. Perhaps put on my best Mary Worth face and say, "You are out of line, Capisce?"
wanders:
ReplyDeleteThat. Was. Awesome!
You didn't miss much on the homefront over the weekend, particularly not on Sunday morning.
--wheelhead
The woman handled it badly. It doesn't sound like it was so disruptive that you couldn't eat your meal in peace. Having said that, I can say that I don't like when children are being disruptive or "quietly fussing" to the point that I can't have a conversation. I have requested to not be seated by tables where that sort of thing is happening. Too many parents think that it's romper room time at the restaurant and let their kids do as they please.
ReplyDeleteSomehow, my parents always managed to "control" me so I wasn't disruptive.
Amber: I totally forgot the awesome power of "Capisce." That would no doubt do the trick.
ReplyDeleteScreaming Lady was way out of line. It's always embarrassing to witness someone lashing out in self-righteous fury that's totally incongruous with the situation.
That said, I have to admit, abashedly, that I've thought of becoming Screaming Lady before. It was in a movie theater, and it would've been more like "WHY WOULD YOU BRING A BABY TO A TENDER MOVIE LIKE THIS?? THE BABY CANNOT TELL WHEN IS A GOOD TIME TO CRY. ACTUALLY THERE ARE PROBABLY NO GOOD TIMES FOR THE BABY TO CRY, THIS IS A PRETTY DRAMATIC FILM" But you know... everyone was probably already thinking that, and those parents probably felt pretty bad about it anyway.
Did the disgruntled diners PAY for their meals???? Maybe the "complaint" about the child making noise was some scam to beat the check.
ReplyDeleteWay "back in the day" I was at a football game where an old guy was rudely puffing away on a nasty, HORRIBLE smelling cigar! None of us in his vicinity said anything; we just suffered and gagged in silence. Finally, the guy got up to leave. As he walked away, another spectator stood up, doffed his fedora hat and grandly gestured with it in the man's direction and shouted at the top of his lungs, "GOODBYE, PANATELLA!!" The entire bleacher section started laughing and clapping. It was GREAT! The old guy didn't return for some reason, LoL.
ReplyDeleteBack to MW. That poor gal with cheap glasses must be a groupie who has a huge crush on Lawrence.
Perhaps she'll hatch a plot to kill Del? That might be interesting...
Blondie with the cheap eyewear must have come to hear Lawrence speak about fame and fortune.
ReplyDeleteWith the help of his pink book, she may never have to wear dollar magnifiers as her sole eyewear again!
Or could she be the catering manager for the Knights Inn where this "seminar" is taking place? Maybe she is rushing off to double check the menu for the wedding reception taking place soon. Bet it's going to be a cash bar.
If Del and Lawrence take their future child to the Bum Boat, and the child is noisy, would Mary go postal? Would Charley break into a pornographic version of "Some Enchanted Evening"? Would salmon squares be on the menu?
ReplyDeleteDid Chester buy anything from the Skymall catalog?
Where is Drew?
--Beagle Vet
So I just noticed that when Del was in line she had on a pink and black top but suddenly when they are hugging she has on a solid pink blazer outfit.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like it is time for them to fade into the sunset. Stay tuned for the next exciting adventure of Mary Worth. lol.