The ____day Chowder and Marching Society

Will now come to order! It is official, I have decided, and I am unanimous in saying so.

We women need each other. We need to talk, to laugh, to walk, to sit, to nurture each other. We are the ones who pack the tents (as in Sarai and Abram) or the Mayflower or the Conestoga wagons or the 40-foot containers. We are the ones who gather those of our chicks that we can take with us and tear our hearts from our breasts as we bid farewell to those of our chicks that we cannot take with us.

We are the ones who leave all the familiar sights, sounds, smells, tastes, "feels" that are our homes as we follow our menfolk to the wilderness, the Promised Land, the New World - whatever it is that is around the next bend and just out of their view.

Our menfolk seem to be just fine, thankyouverymuch, as they settle in. They seem to be able to look ahead and to compartmentalize all the left behinds of their lives.

We women don't have that gift. We are the nest-builders, the putter-downers of roots. We decorate. We paint. And it is like splinters under our fingernails to have to up and leave our nests.

So what we do, we women, is to search out each other. We scout for each other. We "Knit in Public". We conspicuously look at local maps at the welcome center coffee shop in the hope that those nice looking people a couple of tables over might also be ex-pats. We listen for English - American or Brit. And we find each other.

And when we find each other and we discover that we are, as Gonzo said in "The Muppet Movie", old friends who've just met, we rejoice. Oh, how we rejoice!

And on a day like today, that rejoicing consists of getting together and driving to David and laughing and talking and sharing and eating and shopping.

My feet are a bit sore but my spirit is soaring! We have decided, Kathleen and I, that once a week is not excessive for meandering down to David and having girl time. We have not yet decided, however, what day would be best. But we shall, indeed, institute the _____day Chowder and Marching Society, effective today.

Because it is cheaper than a ticket to the states. And a heckuva lot more fun than a shrink!