Pretty sure I ate most meals sitting on a curb or on an asphalt parking lot while in band.  The first lunch of band camp, band trips for football games and contests, sitting on the curb, many times eating KFC.  Not the most comfortable, but a place where we gathered with friends to laugh and talk while we were eating a meal.

As I grew older, because this band thing is still going on, I tried to find ways to make the band meal more comfortable.  Running out for a quick lunch, sitting on the bus or on bleachers but still taking the time to talk with friends and colleagues over whatever box lunch we were served.  It’s funny, but after all of the wonderful homemade meals we’ve had sitting around our dining room table together recently, we have occasionally ventured out with our masks and gloves to satisfy our craving for a not-so-good-for-us boxed meal of some kind.

As we waited yesterday afternoon in a line of cars that revolved twice around the boxed lunch restaurant of choice, I noticed a young woman sitting on the parking lot between two cars.  Seeing her immediately took me back to those band meals, and I found myself wondering why she was sitting there.  Was she an employee taking a break outside?  Did she want to eat it while it was still warm instead of driving it home to eat?  And then I noticed the two cars beside her.  Seated in each car, spaced safely apart were two older ladies, perhaps family members who were eating inside their cars having a conversation with the younger woman on the curb.

At that instant I teared up.  The fact that we were having to stay outside of the restaurant and everyone was having to wear masks and gloves didn’t bother me – it’s the way of the world right now.  But watching what looked to be a family doing what they needed to do in order to be together just to share a meal brought the tears.  It has been a month and a half since we’ve been able to have a meal with our kids and grandkids.  I didn’t realize how important that would be before all of this happened.  And now I would give anything to sit on a curb and have a boxed meal with them.

Maybe all this has happened to make us aware of how important family and those little things are.  A simple, inexpensive, boxed lunch with people you care about while sitting on a curb.