Peer Pressure at Age 69

Tyler and I had a BBQ and invited some friends over.

The average age of the people at our party was 65.

It was HOT.  Really HOT.

All day long before the party, my parents called me to find out if we were going to be sitting outside or if I had planned to move the party inside due to the heat.

“Jim and I can’t take the heat, you know,” she said. “We won’t stay if we have to sit outside.”

I knew.

So the party started and we were dying of heat.  Sweat was running down my face and my parents kept giving me a look that it was time to move inside.

So I made an announcement to rally the group inside to the crisp, cool comfort of air conditioning.

However, there was this one nice man who was the Uncle of our good friend, Stan.  He was older than the rest of the group.

He stated in his bold voice, “It’s summer!  It’s supposed to be hot!”

And nobody moved.

I looked at Jim and Tina and they just smiled and nodded along with this man like they were totally on board with staying outside.

They caved to the peer pressure.

An hour later as I was taking my good ole sweet time preparing dinner in my cold kitchen, my dad came in to cool off.

I gave him a piece of my mind and asked him why he didn’t speak up since he was obviously too hot.  Do you want to know what he said?

“Because he is older than us.  If he can take the heat, so can we. Plus he told us to stay outside.”

Sadly, my parents are no longer with us.  That man told them to jump off a bridge and they did.

Okay.  They are still alive, but apparently they WOULD jump off a bridge if someone told them to.

I am so disappointed in them.