MY CLUELESS HOSTING
My brother Richard and his wife Chris arrived from New York yesterday. On their first day here they had pizza dinner on the roof of a inn in downtown Asheville with a marvelous view with my son Tom, daughter in law Kathy, and granddaughter Hannah.
Today Chris and Richard arrived in Marshall at noon for a visit. Everyone except for me was at work. I had been reminded by Susie to have some snacks and wine so that we could sit around in my apartment and eat snacks and have a glass of wine. I have never entertained in my apartment or anywhere else so I didn’t know quite what to buy but did my best, walking over to the Madison Natural Food Store in Marshall and buying $80 worth of wine, beer, and selzer water as well as all kinds of snacks and crackers and dip.
My plan was that after wine and snacks we would go to Zuma for lunch and I would show them Marshall, even though most of the stores were closed on Tuesday.
But my attempts to be a host, something that my wife Kathe had done all of our lives, began to go awry immediately. Chris and Richard had come directly from breakfast at the very pleasant Well Bread Bakery in Weaverville and were not hungry, so all the snacks that I had laid out, enough for ten people when put in a number of bowls, didn’t look appealing. They never drank wine before evening, so the wine remained unopened. I was eager to invite them to Zuma to show them where I liked to sit in the morning and write, and ordered a bowl of chili for myself, but they had no hunger and all they wanted was a tiny cup of chili apiece. I had thought that they were staying until evening to eat a meal Susie would fix and then to go to Beans and Times and get a feel for Marshall night life. Before the meal they could have some of my bowls of snacks as we sat in my apartment with Todd and Susie before eating dinner. But Chris didn’t want to drive on curvy mountain roads after dark and because it was a gloomy, rainy day it was beginning to darken at 3, so they decided to play it safe and drive straight back to their hotel in Weaverville.
Todd wasn’t feeling well and went home. After work Susie came by and we had some snacks and opened the wine bottle and then went to Beans and Tunes.
BEANS AND TUNES
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My first very amateurish attempt at being a host was simply a learning experience. I’ll do better next time.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 