Sunday Breeze

Gorgeous day here. My husband and I drove to Kemah for lunch. The restaurants there are set up along a boardwalk overlooking Galveston Bay.... very pretty views. Lots of sailboats going up and down the canal-- we usually pick out the ones we like. Then we make excuses why we won't be shopping for a boat: too much maintenance, too expensive for gas, insurance rates too high. But it's fun to look. I'm not a boat person anyway. I'm not a great swimmer, having just learned two years ago, and I've yet to swim very far in water that's over my head. I'm not exactly sea-worthy, to say the least.

So there we were, enjoying the sun (which wasn't too hot), the breeze (which wasn't strong enough to qualify for a bad-hair day), and the peace and quiet of a southeast Texas Sunday. And what do we hear? Rap music. Loud rap music. (I guess there's no such thing as soft rap music.) And where was it coming from? The huge speed boat sponsored by one of the Kemah restaurants.

This "cigarette-style" speed boat holds about 50 people and goes up and down the Bay every half hour or so. It's painted with bright colors worthy of Disney World, but the music that was coming out of that boat was enough to shatter your soul. Usually, they play the Village People's "YMCA" song, or the theme from "Gilligan's Island." Both songs will get people's attention as they stroll along the boardwalk and hopefully make them want to pay $8 for the ride. And those songs are fun and easy to take. Today, however, before noon on a glorious Sunday, the music of choice was rap. (I don't know what 'rap' stands for, but in my opinion, it's short for 'rotten angry protests.')

The rap music lasted for about 12 minutes. Not very long, but long enough to make the ice cubes jump around in the glasses and the seagulls screech in horror as they flew away from the dock. And I swear the resident cat who always sits at the edge of the restaurant's deck waiting for scraps was twitching his whiskers to the beat. Bomp-baa-baa-bomp, bomp-baa-baa-bomp.

Thankfully, whoever was in charge of the boat's music switched to "Gilligan's Island" as paying customers started to get on board. On a busy day in Kemah, that boat goes out into the Bay with every seat taken. This morning, for its first run, there were less than a dozen people sitting there in orange life-jackets. The boat always has a crew of four--- one is steering, one is watching the passengers, and two are in charge of the entertainment.

Entertainment being either the "YMCA" song or the "Macarena" music. Usually, they pick high-spirited people for that job who can keep going with the dance movements to those songs for the entire boat ride. Just one crew member this morning was in charge of the entertainment, being that the passenger list was so small on their first run of the day. The pony-tailed girl stood at the front of the boat wearing blue shorts, a blue top, and one large white Mickey Mouse glove. One glove? Walt Disney wouldn't approve of a single-gloved mouse, but we're in Kemah, not Orlando, so I guess the Disney rules do not apply.

As the boat pulled away from the dock, they turned up the volume on the music and the Village People belted out "YMCA" as the one-gloved girl tried to get the crowd into the song. Try as she might, for as long as we could see them as they pulled away from the dock, not one person was either clapping or following along with the Y - M - C - A movements. Miss Pony Tail jumped higher and higher... she clapped with such enthusiasm that we were waiting for her Mickey Mouse glove to go soaring into the bay. And the passengers sat. And sat. And sat. It was very sad. Miss Pony Tail seemed oblivious to their non-participation. To her credit, she kept at it. Very unusual to have such a quiet crowd on that boat, by the way. Usually, everyone really gets into it.

Life on the speed-boat got just a little better on the way back, however. We watched as the boat made its way back into the canal so it could go down to the end and turn around and re-dock. Near the back of the boat was a life-jacketed little boy, sitting on his mother's lap. I'm guessing he was less than two years old. But he was doing the Macarena with all of his might, keeping up with Miss Pony Tail and her white glove, and bouncing on his mother's knees for all he was worth.