Recently, our 30-something friends moved into a nice, suburban neighborhood where everything is as you’d imagine; a typical Pleasantville neighborhood with houses 6-feet apart, all the same except in colors as varied as the paint isle at Lowes or Home Depot, and every front and back yard immaculately mowed and tastefully decorated.
We didn’t question their choice because we knew they had 3 children, a teenager and ages 3 and 9 and this seemed like the perfect neighborhood for them.
What we did question them about, however, was their sudden decision, weeks after moving, to purchase a golf cart.
“A GOLF CART?” I remember exclaiming, “Why on Earth would they need a golf cart?” After coming up with some rather hilarious golf cart jokes, my husband and I accepted our friends’ dinner invitation that upcoming Saturday. It was October in South Carolina, so we were prepared for a typical evening of backyard barbequing.
To our surprise, our evening had nothing to do with barbequing and was absolutely centered around the…golf cart.
Upon arrival, my friend’s husband and oldest son were nowhere to be seen and she was packing up coolers and trays.
“Where’s Ben?” I asked.
“He’s out with Ryan on the golf cart. He’ll be right back and then we’ll all go.” She replied as my husband and I exchanged confused glances.
A few minutes later, our confusion was even more piqued when we saw something resembling a golf cart, but from a Tim Burton movie.
Ben jumped out from the driver’s seat dressed in all black with skeleton bones printed on his body, as his son, Ryan, brushed past the spider webs and pumpkin decorations on the passenger’s side. Ben took off his skeleton mask and laughed, “You guys ready?”
His wife came out, except this time she was wearing a full-on corpse bride costume holding the hand of a 2-foot-tall witch and a slightly taller wizard trailing behind them.
“Our neighborhood is having a Halloween Golf Cart Parade! It’s really fun and the kids get to go trick-or-treating afterwards.” The corpse bride explained.
A few minutes later, we arrived at the neighborhood’s central park, where golf carts lined the sidewalks surrounding the grassy field. They were all decorated so impressively that we instantly wished we had one so we could be a part of this massive golf-cart masquerade.
All of the adults were laughing and having fun passing out candy and snacks while their children compared costumes and explored the decorated golf carts.
The party lasted for hours, and after those hours of incredible fun fueled by the hard work and creativity of the golf cart owners, my husband and I both realized something, and he was the first to say it on the drive home…
“You know, I bet we’d have more fun if we had a golf cart…”
