thanks, schomburg!

"Schomburg? You mean John and Sherry were in town?"

 

Yes, they were!!! And they weren't the only Schomburgs at Jalapenos, either.

 

"Oh, sweet, they were there for the Smiths & Kamerons Friday Fiesta!"

Well, sure, kinda sorta. They were here to visit with the parents, but also to catch up face to face with friends.

"That's wonderful! So his brother was there, too?"

Yes, Brian was. That's him on the left, with older brother John. I didn't remember him from back in the day, but I don't recall much from my high school days, and even less from those at Myers Middle School. I mostly know John from my years of working with Smitty. Anyway... I was saying that both Schomburg brothers were there, as were their wives. I actually spent a lot of time chatting with Regina, Brian's wife, and their daughter Delaney. She goes to Savannah Arts Academy!!! She's in the choral program there, but is hoping to get into the Skylarks group next year, when she'll be a junior.

"I see. I'm so glad you were able to connect with them and help them feel like part of the group. They hadn't been there before, had they?"

I don't believe they had. They weren't familiar with the menu. It didn't matter to the girl, as she just got a cheese quesadilla. But the mom wanted something else, something different. I recommended the shrimp ceviche, as that's what I had promised myself, and Regina loved it! She ate every bit, just as I did.

"I am so glad you were able to steer her to that! Maybe she and Brian might come out again some time for y'all's Friday gatherings."

Maybe so! As it was, she and I were at the end of the fourth table, so we really didn't hear anything going on at the other three tables. Like, right here, where Smitty was regaling all with a story of stupid things in the past - we had no idea which story it was. LOL! Tony was missing, but all of the rest of our usual group were there, plus The Kameron girl was still home from UGA. All total, there were 13 of us. Claudia was kept quite busy!!!

"Oh, my!!! Quite a crowd!"

Yes, it was. I'm thankful that the guy at the bar saw me and helped move in that fourth table. You know the guy I mean? The one who always teases Smitty? The one I talked to about the tall chairs giving me sciatica and he mentioned his mom had that?

"Sure, I know who you mean! The one who comes up and kind of flirts with Smitty!"

Yeah, that's the guy. I don't know his name, but he is almost always there.

"Maybe you can find out next time. Anyway, you haven't said why you dedicated this post to Schomburg. I'm assuming you mean John, not his brother?"

That's right, John, not Brian. So there we all were and I'd been chatting with Regina, then she left and John moved over to me. And he proceeded to tell me a story about Mama, one I didn't know. You see, when he was younger, it was considered nice to give a token of appreciation to companies for their business. So, he took a turkey and a ham out to Union Camp for the mill manager... and Mama was the manager's secretary. Well, she invited John to the company dinner, so he went. And Mama called out to him and had him sit with her at the manager's table, introducing him to all the bigwigs there. Next thing you know, the folks at Union Camp have quadrupled their orders with John's company! John said his orders went from $20,000 to $30,000 per month to $100,000 per month!!! And everyone who placed an order asked him, "How do you know Sybil? How do you know Sybil?"

"What a wonderful story!"

Right? And he told it to me apropos of nothing. No segue in the conversation, just off the cuff. I regarded it as an unexpected gift, with due gratitude for the telling of it. It really made my night, it did. Like a Christmas present from the past.

i thank You, God.