To Shorts, or not to Shorts, that is the Question

 "Grown men don't wear shorts." Good thing she wasn't looking at me when she said that, because my eyes went so wide they nearly popped out of their sockets. Admittedly she attributed the statement to his - her husbands - mother, but my impression was that the sentiment was shared not only by her, but by the husband as well and, as i stood there in shorts, it kind of closed a damper over any chance of the conversation progressing much further.

You see, we were all standing in line for the Kiwanis pancake breakfast on the 4th of July when the mrs., as she is want to do, began to talk with the folks in line ahead of us. Not content to let the small talk go at the weather, the festivities, or whether maple syrup or some other flavor was the preference, the questions soon became, marginally, more personal - where are you from, what do you do, where'd you go to high school? We already knew they were visiting from out of state and, just as there are only so many teeth in any one mouth that can be pulled, there are only so many questions that can be asked before any one person begins to think they have divulged enough. Answers came to a halt with the one about high school, and no coaxing or prodding was going to change that.

Change of tactic... the out-of-state folks were modestly, maybe piously dressed, unlike most of the crowed around us in the park. The topic of dress was raised, and she said, "grown men don't wear shorts." Thankfully it was only awkward for a short moment before one of the volunteers came along the line to let everyone know that there was no more coffee to be had. The distraction worked without the need of a follow-up retort - you know, something along the lines of, "well, i'm a grown man, and i wear shorts every day."

Maybe born and bred in southern California will do that to you. Maybe i'm just not quite a fully-grown man yet. You gotta admit though, it was pretty funny, hearing someone say that grown men don't wear shorts, in the midst of a summer crowd where nearly everyone, excepting perhaps those who were there in some sort of official capacity, were wearing shorts.

There was some pretty nice shorts-wearing mountain biking to be had this week after work and, i imagine, there will be next week as well.