Camaraderie

A few days ago Linda and I went to some little town upriver with the Viana Remos rowing club for a holiday lunch and man oh man do these people know how to Lunch. We started at 1330 and left the joint at 1740!
There were 24 of us, all at one long table, architects, professors, attorneys, surgical nurses, public school teachers, musicians and several other brands of professional accomplishment, but athletes, every one. An august group. Then, after a few bottles of wine and the fried chicken gizzards, breaded pig-parts and cod biscuits had made the rounds, one end at a time, each end of the table would break into full-howl bawdy song while everyone drummed on the table top (I just drooled and pounded the table). This prompted the choir at the other end to respond with something even louder and more risqué.
It was hilarious. They were blushing, yelling and laughing so hard it set off my cosmic laughter response and both Linda and I hooted along with the crew, tears rolling down our faces. I have rarely felt this much camaraderie among a group, and never among a group of adults and certainly never while eating little cubes of breaded not-otherwise-specified pig-parts.
We are so happy to have found Remos! We are so happy to have found Portugal.