Poly Picnic

Last week, I had a group of 9 or 10 friends, all of whom have a handful of little ones like mine, come over for a morning muffin picnic. We had out the sandbox, the play set, the little pool, the hose, everything necessary for a few hours of outside fun while the moms sat and chatted and babies crawled on the picnic blanket. The kids ran around in their usual wild packs of wet swimsuit madness and we all giggled and laughed and enjoyed the fun.

Partway through the picnic, I was startled to see a man standing there who apparently had come to look at our old 80s Volvo Station wagon we'd recently put up for sale. (Later, Michael told me he'd instructed the man to come at 5 PM, that no one would be home earlier, but I guess he thought he'd stop by during lunch anyway.) He clearly felt awkward and apologized once he saw the big group gathered in my backyard. I showed him the wagon, which he somewhat rushedly checked out with a herd of little kids hanging over the door and into the engine compartment (Hey, what's this? What are you doing? Is it working?) He said he would call Michael and left.

The next day, the same came back to see if he and Michael could get the car started. While he was here, the missionaries stopped by for a quick chat, as they often do, and the man and his wife immediately marked that we were Mormon. Michael said soon after the missionaries left, the man turned to him and asked "So how does that polygamy thing work? I can hardly handle one wife!" Michael immediately set him straight "Um, it doesn't, we don't, and anyone who does doesn't belong to our church!" and the man took it graciously and they kept on their work.

We came to really like this guy and he was always friendly and kind to us, it was just a misunderstanding. (Thanks for nothing, Big Love.) The funny part was when a few days later Michael's mom pointed out that there's only reason for him to think we were polygamists....

....the party of women and many children....

.... Michael's instructions to "please don't come by until 5"....

....that we are Mormon....

And all I can say is that given how lovely and charming all my friends are, and how gigantic that big crop of beautiful children was, that guy must have thought my husband was one heck of a man.