The Shower

This past weekend, I was “privileged” to drive my lovely wife and her sister to a wedding shower for our soon-to-be daughter in law. The event was in a small town in Western Kansas, and because of the snowfall, I drove them to the event, then back home.
I fully expected to be banished to the crawl space under the basement stairs during the event, lumped in the corner listening to the oohhs and aahhs emanating from the upstairs parlor. I was pleasantly surprised to find that instead of a crawl space, I could occupy the family room along with the father of the bride and two or three small children who were not shower attendee material.
I don’t have a clue what qualifies a particular gift wrap, present, hairdo, or whatever for an “oohh” or an “aahh”, but I’m sure my qualifiers are different than those of women at a wedding shower. Nor do I understand why they went around with clothespins attached to their blouses (something about crossing their legs…when the explanation got to that point, I quit listening), but some definitely had more clothespins than others.
I enjoyed the interaction with Terry (father of the bride), and we talked about hunting, work, kids, home, and religion. I know, I know, you’re never supposed to talk politics and religion with the in-laws, but this was unavoidable. I am an associate minister for my church, and in the course of talking about employment, well, the topic just sort of comes up automatically.
We parted company when he had to report for work, and we decided to continue the conversation at some other time. I read some in a book I had brought, then was invited to the table for snacks. I felt like I was being let out of the cage to be fattened up for the grand finale, but instead, the party just sort of ended.
I now can proudly wear a tee shirt (which I may get sometime) stating that I survived a wedding shower. It must also be a sign of good things to come that I wasn’t banished to the basement storage under the stairs when we arrived. Maybe the in-laws will be all right after all. At least, I didn’t have to worry about crossing my legs.