Salt Water

Long ago Josh started saying "Ma'am," partly because he is polite and partly because he is sarcastic. He uses it differently depending on the situation and once he accidentally said "yes sir! oh, I mean ma'am..." on the telephone. But no matter how he says it, people always respond with a smile and ask "where are you from?"

We went to the Vineyard to vacation with our friends and the President. There we played in the aggressive surf on the South Beach and our friends said "how daring you are, to play in the waves! We've never gone into the ocean here!"

We just couldn't believe it so we asked, "how could you have been vacationing on an island for thirteen years and never gone into the ocean!"

"We just like to tan on the beach," they said.

"But all our lives we tanned on top of a John Deere tractor, and when we were covered in dust from all of the dirt and the hay, we dreamed of swimming in the ocean!"

They smiled and asked "where are you from?"

But when we jumped in the ocean and yelled "it's so salty!"

They knew and said, "only people from the Midwest talk like that."