Breakfast with old men

I breakfasted a few weeks ago with DH at one of the local Mexican restaurant.

We don't usually eat breakfast there, but after our walk with the puppies it somehow seemed a good idea.

Have you ever stopped into a restaurant and seen a "morning coffee group"? These are groups of 4 or more old men/retirees who sit around and talk over breakfast or coffee. I don't think they are simply a function of the south. I suspect they exist anywhere there is a comfortable place with decent coffee and enough retired fellows to make a group, or two, or three.

[I know there is another group at the local Whataburger as YC visited them when she was working on her senior thesis. She interviewed some of the guys for her stories about the cities flooded when the local dam was built. They had some cool stories to tell. But I digress.]

There are at least two groups at the local Mexican restaurant. One group includes a pair of twins. I may have written about them before - perhaps in this place or in a Sunday school letter years ago. I had not realized the twins existed before observing them in the coffee group - and even then it was only because one of them explained it. I only later saw them together.

It seems that one brother attends the Baptist Church and the other attends the Methodist Church. Having raised my kids Methodist, we knew that brother. And spying a man we thought was him at the restaurant one day, MC and I greeted him and spoke for a moment. He smiled and gently told us, "I believe you have me confused with my brother. We are identical twins, you know." [He must have wondered who in the heck we were, speaking so familiarly.]

The Methodist brother has been sick in recent years, but today he was present with the group. I tried not to be too obvious as I watched the group's interaction. I was too far away to hear much of the conversation. I could not help but notice as the one healthy brother guided his twin away from the table, out the door, and to the truck when their breakfast and joke/story/lie telling was through.

I thought about my siblings. I thought about my children. We are blessed as those brothers are blessed.

I read a story in the Guardian recently - about having children as a gift to them. My parents did give me quite the gift and I do hope my children feel the same.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/aug/10/children-more-merrier-siblings-gift