Cotton Eyed Joe!

While looking at the slide-show of Cheryl and Gabe's outting for his 35th b-day, I saw a picture of the "Cotton Eyed Joe" t-shirt shop in Gruene. It reminded me of a very fond memory that will always be near and dear to my heart. The story is about one of our first ventures into the "Cotton Eyed Joe's" t-shirt shop. When visiting Mammaw and Pappaw once, Mom took Matt, Gabe, and me over to Gruene. Apparently the t-shirts with the lizards all over them in various compromising positions had recently become popular, and they unwisely decided to set them out for sale that day. Wellll, mom, in her very unique way, had a little "discussion" with the store clerk one day. Mom had decided, rather quickly, that she needed to explain the depth of their error in judgement, and save the clerk from an eternity of remorse about exposing young kids to the crassness of these body posters for debauchery. And...as one of those vulnerable young kids, I was still very much worried about my own coolness. Needless to say, having a mom lay into the young clerk (since the owner of the store was lucky enough to not be present), wasn't doing anything for my image. Matt, Gabe, and I had a little less swagger in our walk as we left the store than when we entered. In fact, we probably didn't walk out at all.....we probably ran. Looking back I'm not so embarrased, however, and I would even pray that I could be so zealous to protect my kid from the "nasty" things of the world. Way to go Mom.