Pigging Out
Tonight I went to an annual luau hosted by people I used to work with. It’s now a mostly retired group who come to eat roast pig and to remember the old days.
For 15 years I worked in this international office of a government agency. We mostly worked in third world countries. There were some colorful characters along the way.
Most of them now have gray hair or no hair and the scales weigh a little heavier.
There was a lot of “Do you remember...” and a collective effort to fill in a name as we searched the far reaches of our memories with a description of the person. By the end of the evening we had filled in all those blanks and had a lot of laughs over people and incidents from the past.
We stuffed ourselves on great food, including the roast pig whose face we tried to overlook. All 50 pounds of him (or her) seemed to simply disappear. We had vodka-laced watermelon and other more decadent things for dessert.
It was finally time to tuck away the memories and deal with the present and future. We kicked around the idea of another reunion, but no one volunteered to plan it. Instead we’ll reconvene at next year’s luau to pick up where we left off and probably to tell the same funny stories and laugh as though it was the first time.
posted by Barbara at 10:38 PM
5 Comments:
My friends in Italy (who we are going to see again in just 2 weeks!) recently catered a wedding where roast pig was on the menu. The whole pig like in your post. I know that the food I eat comes from cute animals and all that but I really don't want to see a face! That would be a deal breaker. But vodka-laced watermelon? Yum! Yum!
Reunions sure are a form of time travel, aren't they? I find them both heartwarming and bittersweet. It's hard for me sometimes to pull myself back from the gravitational pull of my Former Selves and ease myself back into Today's Skin.
I love it that your group meets every year!
F.
It sounds like a great get-together, even with the same old stories. Especially with the same old stories. Some things deserve to be relived and remembered and when else would you do it?
Yeah, I'm with Gary. The face is a little too much for me. But I guess it's hypocritical to dislike looking a dead animal and then enjoy eating it!
Gary, Steve -- Someone put the pig's tail over his eyes so at least he wasn't staring at us as we served ourselves. The roasted meat was warm and juicy. You just had to block out the fact that he had been running around on 4 little pig feet not too long ago.
Anon -- This was a reunion of just a piece of the old office. In addition were many friends and neighbors (a very diverse group) since the hosts are real people lovers.
Kristin -- It's often the stories that define one's career, not the work products.
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