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Kathryn Tucker Windham, Alabama’s Legendary Storyteller, said the best way to say “I love you” is to say, “Come and sit by me and let me tell you a story.”

I think of her often, with a smile.

The other night as I sat waiting for a couple of friends at a restaurant.

Three families were seated nearby tables. The children were very, well-behaved. Not one time did any one of them move a muscle or look away from their cell phones  Not one time did any one of them speak a word except when the waitress came to serve the meals that had been ordered on-line.

My friends arrived and soon we were talking and laughing and that caused all the tri-family members to look sharply at us.

We continued carrying on at conversations  a.k.a. talking in low voices and having a great time of sharing  -who had done this and that; who was sick and who was off on a bus trip; who attending another church; who was moving off and who was moving back, who had a new car and who had a new grandbaby.

We shared recipes that don’t have to be especially good, just easy, and about how hard it’s going to be with Christmas coming and prices as high as a Georgia pine.

We remembered how Christmas used to be, How the desserts had so much sugar that we gained 10 pounds and how we had to make appointments at the dentist. We talked about going to the woods to cut our Christmas trees and decorating them with colored lights and iciles.

The restaurant was crowded and our talking was out of place.

But, in an unspoken way, we had said, “Come sit by me and tell me a story.”

We wondered what the people at the tables all around us talked about

“Nothing.”