my people

I have just spent the past week in the most comfortable place on earth. I was at the beach. Actually I have discovered that the beach is very, very UNcomfortable. It is really hot. You have to wear a bathing suit (I went wild and wore a 2 piece ... WATCH OUT!). You sweat like a pig. The sand blows all over you and sticks...FOREVER. And the water stings and makes your eyes and lips hurt because it is salty. But this week was so comfortable because I was with my family. Aaahhh, my family. I want to try to describe a day in the life of my family. It will be hard. It will be long. Can you stick with me? We shall see...

There are enough people in my family that faces just look like dots on bodies in family pictures. I think a good motto for us would be "The more, the merrier" because we somehow always pick up more random people wherever we go and we like it. When we all eat dinner together no one is sure if everyone has eaten because no one can keep count. My aunts and I tried to count the leftover paper plates this year to see how many people had eaten and we think about 70 people got fed between the 2 family dinner nights, but hey some people brought their own dinnerware so who knows. But we know who ate first both nights because we always get in the food line in the same order because my dad insists upon it ... oldest to youngest except guests and babies first. I always want to bring a guest so I can be at the first. There are some people in my family that aren't really related to us by blood or whatever but they still have to get in the regular line because they've come past guest status into family status. And no matter how many beach condos have been rented by people in our family we all end up squishing 5 or 6 to a couch just so we can all eat in the same room. And boy are we loud. Everyone has a joke to tell or a story to embellish.
If you're a part of the family, you have to learn to take a lot and dish a lot out too. Between my grandaddy, my dad, and my uncles you don't really want to bring a new boyfriend around. Oh they won't be rude or pick on him; they'll be really polite to him and ask all the normal first-time questions like "where are you from?" and "what school do you go to?" but to you, they are relentless in the pokes, prods, eyebrow raises, winks and jokes. And if you're like me and you don't have a boyfriend, every aunt or girl cousin who IS in a relationship will try to set you up with "my husband's friend John" or "this young man who just graduated and is really going places" even if you tell them you don't even want a boyfriend. And if you are one of those people who aren't blood related but still have to get in the regular line at dinner time, you get picked on and set up the same way ... no exemptions if you are in the regular line.
Going to the beach with my family is like being in a circus kind of ... it's really fun and funny and you have this special bond like a secret with the other people in the circus, but in reality its just a lot of weirdos and no one doesn't notice them and sometimes if you remember that you are ONE of those weirdos it can be embarassing. But no older circus members ever get embarrassed anymore because they've been in the circus for so long. And most of the time they don't notice when the newcomers get embarassed, which really is for the best because if they DO notice, they'll give you a hard time about it. Now that I think of it, a circus analogy really is perfect because when my family goes to the beach we all have to be together of course, so every family sets up a tent in our personal 'KNIGHT FAMILY RAINBOW ROW' except, like a said, rainbow row is too sophisticated to describe us so it's more like the 'KNIGHT CIRCUS ARENA.' And I mean like the big 10 x 10 blue and green tents not those little weenie beach umbrellas. So 5 tents-in-a-row later we have a small shelter for the heat and sun-shy ready and marking our territory up on the soft sand. Down by the water all the moms put their low rider beach chairs facing the ocean to keep an eye on the kids or maybe just to gossip away from the men.
Like most other animals, we are creatures of habit and we focus that habit on food. There are certain things that always happen on a family beach trip and one big thing is EATING. My grandmother always cooks one night - roast beef, ham, turkey, corn, butter beans, green beans, squash, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers and some bread. And no one is allowed to touch her chocolate layer cake or her pound cake until that night. One night Amy and Lisa always cook. Lisa's family is italian and portuguese so she has worked her way in as a family member through her spaghetti and marinara sauce with meatballs. She makes like 10 pounds of ground beef worth of meatballs and two types of marinara - spicy or not spicy - and garlic bread. And one night most of us go out to eat seafood. Yeah we get some weird looks when we all emerge from different corners of the waiting area when "Knight, party of 30" is called, but 'hey at least we didn't bring everyone' is what I always think. When I was little there was always a night to go to the strip and the Pavilion to ride the Swamp Fox and 'that new yellow ride that holds like 50 people and flips you all around.' But we don't really do that anymore because what I think of as the "original grandchildren" are 13 and over, which means each chooses his or her own nightlife activity and tries to get it parent-approved. But we still always have to go on a donut run to Krispy Kreme. No Knight has ever resisted the Hot-N-Now sign.

This year was my first time to spend the week at Springmaid Beach with my family in 2 years. All these family oddities popped out at me again, sort of new but new like deja-vu is new in that you already knew it. I haven't even started to scratch the surface of what this group of people is like. I wish I could take each of you who don't know my family and have never been to the beach with us with me one summer so you can experience the greatness that is my family. A family like mine is something that is meant to be shared. I mean after all, there are enough of us to go around, that's for sure.