The Hobo Kid: Impromptu Family

I realized the other day that I have had a new job every season for the last three years. I move around a good deal and spend quite a bit of time on my own. This is most apparent during the holidays. I always find myself envying the families and friends gathered together, laughing about what so-and-so did last year during the 4^th, or how this is gonna be the best Independence Day yet and so on and so forth. It’s the familiarity of tradition. The same group of people, gathering together celebrating in a familiar fashion as years gone by, I miss that. Don’t get me wrong, I love my life and I love new experiences, but the holidays are about friends and family. This year I was lucky enough to collect an impromptu family.

The group of guys I work with are similar to myself, they aren’t really from the “middle of nowhere” North Dakota area that we are working in, they are all transplants from here and there. This 3^rd of July (apparently that’s when a majority of the personal fireworks get set off) I was invited to celebrate with my coworkers and their families. I should also mention that I work with a crew of six guys, four of which are old enough to be my father, the other guy is just a kid himself. Not really knowing what to expect, I decided to show up and hope for the best. It was better than I could have ever hoped. We had hamburgers and hotdogs, potato salad and chips, the whole nine yards as far as bbq’s go. The best thing about it though was that no one cared that we had all just met for the first time a week and a half ago. We all acted like we had been there before. The elder statesman, Joel aka “The Old Goat” was shelling out advice to us youngsters, his wife was pip-pipping about making sure everyone had something to eat. Ernie, the boss man, was playing with his kids (and by playing I mean chasing them with an RC car.) And everyone was just there, comfortable, enjoying the time off and the company they were with. I’m not sure if it was small town hospitality, or that we were all looking to share a memory with someone for the holidays, or if we all just got lucky and ended up liking one another, but I know that for one night I had an impromptu family.