Today in the meadow there is pizza.  Well, there’s usually always pizza but today is different. Today is Treehouse Pizza Party Day, another Ollie holiday.  This means the meadow itself is very quiet.  There are no random rocket launches or subsequent uncontrolled fire.  There is no sound of video games and no bemoaning boredom.

Up in the branches of Tripletrunk Tree is where all the action is.   The entire gang is present in the treehouse  for a day of unrestrained gorging.  All kinds of pizzas are brought in – mushroom, olive, onion, extra cheese, extra olives, extra pizza, pepperoni, spinach, broccoli, salad, everything and even a few calzones.

When I was a child I used to look forward to Tuesday night.  There was a pizza place in town, I can’t remember the name but on Tuesday they had a special, a pie and giant bottle of soda for five bucks.  This wasn’t one of those corporate chain places.  This was a real local pizzeria with the red and white checkered tablecloths and paintings of the Italian landscape all over the knotty pine walls.  My mother used to take my sister and I there every Tuesday.  She didn’t have much money back then so this was a way for her to treat us to something special. It became a small tradition, too.  She’d get home from work at the hospital around 5:30 and pile us into this old beat down VW Bug (ironic pun?), the one where you could never hit the horn because it always stuck and you had to roll the window down with a pair of pliers.   Lean times without question but she made this happen every week because it was fun, we loved it and we loved spending time with her.

Maybe part of that memory seeps into Treehouse Pizza Party Day, a day where all the friends in Moonwater Meadow gather for their own little tradition because it’s fun, they love it and they love spending time together.  Maybe you have similar traditions with family and friends.  We here in the meadow hope you do because nothing beats that feeling of love and warmth that comes from such unofficial traditions.

Speaking of unofficial traditions, tomorrow is the unofficial holiday; Over-consume Antacids Day.