No Thongs Allowed

As you may or may not know, I grew up in Virginia Beach.  At various times in my beach life I lived a stones throw from the ocean front, or as far away as you can possibly get & still be in the city of Va Beach.  Living so close to the ocean, you would think we would have gone all the time.  Once a week at least in the summer, right?  No.  We went once or twice a year, tops.  So, I remember each time pretty clearly.  Once when we had gone all the way out to sandbridge, which is a beach that is a little more remote and definitely off the pavement "strip", I had one of those life changing moments.  No, I didn't join a religion or meet prince charming, I was a young 8 and I learned to question everything, even if the sign says not to....

The sign that I read was, "No Thongs Allowed".  Well, that didn't make any sense at all.  No thongs?  Even at the age of 8 I could see the benefit of having Thongs on the beach.  That is insane.  Why would they ban Thongs?  They're cheap.  Everyone likes thongs.  Now, I didn't push the Thong question with my parents, because when I started to ask about it, my mother was definitely in favor of the No Thong Rule.  I could see that my question made her a little angry.  I figured She was probably angry at my father's new wife, who "probably even wore Thongs around" me.  I thought I heard her say something like that, but again, I could see that we were going to get kicked off the beach.  As we walked toward the life guard stand I started to really worry.  My mother & her husband seemed unconcerned, but I could see that we were in serious violation.  Everyone in our family had them on... our feet.

I don't know why I thought of that today, maybe it was a 4th of July memory, or maybe it's because I caught a glimpse of something I wish i hadn't seen in the mirror this morning!  

Happy 4th!