Flash Mob

We go to Bob’s Diner every Saturday for breakfast.  It’s a ritual.

Sunday mornings, we have a different ritual that involves breakfast at home and chores, but company is on the way and the mess in the boys’ room is a def-con four, and we’ll need the energy from the fat and protein to tackle the job ahead. So we head to Bob’s.

The place is packed, but loyalty has its privileges, and we get table quickly.  We sit, and the big guy hangs up our coats.  We wait to five our drink order, enjoying a bit of people-watching as we wait for our beverages. There is a wonderful mix of people including retirees, families, and teenagers enjoying a bit of freedom on a Sunday morning.

At a table nearby there is a group of young people – they can’t be more than 18 or 19.  They are happy and boisterous, but not so much that they disrupt anyone else’s enjoyment of the morning. Some of them are flipping through the songs on the nearby jukebox, and soon we hear the opening bars of Queen’s  Bohemian Rhapsody.  At the other end of the diner, I can hear one or two patrons who look to be around my age humming along.

Then the comes the chorus.

“Mama!!”  It’s belted out by the table’s entire population of teenagers, singing along with Freddie Mercury. The entire diner erupts with laughter. The next verse starts, and a few of the teens attempt to continue singing along with the song, but they don’t know all the words. It devolves into giggling, but now the entire restaurant is waiting for the next refrain, and we are not disappointed.

Again the kids sing out, a pitch perfect,  “Mama”. They continue singing along with the parts they know better and mumbling the parts they don’t, and when the finale starts, I am almost tempted to light a lighter – stadium concert style .

Then the song ends, and the fun subsides. There are a few more giggles, but they are replaced with the soft din of conversation as people return their attention to their meals.  But everyone is still smiling, and when the teenagers finish their breakfast a few minutes later and file out we can’t help but applaud them for reminding us how much a we all need a little disruption from our routines once in a while.