Papa at Lake

On Sunday, Papa and I went to the lake for dinner and to watch the sunset.

After a satisfying encounter with a Cajun burger and chocolate mousse, I asked him, as the de facto representative for the generations that follow him, whether he had any tidbits of wisdom that he had not yet shared with us.

He did this.

Yes he did too. The proof is in the picture.

You can imagine my surprise. In fact, I was so flummoxed that I could barely form a question about this odd facial expression before he gently said, "we need to talk about some things."

He then led me through the spit-on-your-hands handshake oath, so he could disclose something that he has held back for oh so many years: the fact that this is, in deed, a the long-practiced, secret gesture that RD1 [his father] had passed down to him from Mose [his grandfather]."

He added the disclaimer that RD1 specifically told him "I have no earthly idea what it means," and the thought provoking comment that "it seemed to pacify" Mose anytime they had cross words.

Papa also disclosed that others told him that Mose and RD1 often made this face at one another on at family weddings and birthdays and on the way to lodge meetings (and that it preplexed everyone else in the family).

I pressed him for more details, and with his familiar dead-pan look, he told me, "just do it,its the closest thing we have to a real, back-to-the-beginning-of-time family tradition."

By the way, I don't think it works if you are a girl. Feel free to try, but, he did mention that "it's a guy thing." Sorry. See"For Boys Only" chapter 7 (you remember, "Here's your book, you got any questions?").