MPC & the Crying Baby Parade

Mark and I enjoy going to Marietta Pizza Company on Friday nights. It's a little pizza joint on Marietta Square, and they have outdoor seating along the sidewalk when the weather is good (and even when it's not so good.) This evening the weather was unusually mild and lovely, so we went to MPC and sat outside. Evidently a lot of people had the same idea, because people were waiting to get an outdoor table.

I've often noticed when we've gone to MPC in the past that a lot of families go there. Particularly families with infants and toddlers. I don't know what it is about the place that attracts families. It's just a pizza joint. They don't have any kind of children's special menu, they don't have crayons and coloring pages for children. They serve pizza and beer, mainly. Nevertheless, the families come in droves.

Tonight there were a lot of fussy babies, ours included. As we and all the other families sat there eating our pizzas, calzones, and salads, there was always a point during the meal where baby began fussing, dad would pick him (or her) up, and start walking up and down the sidewalk trying to calm him (or her). As soon as one baby would calm down, it seemed another one a few tables down would start up. After a while there was a steady stream of dads carrying fussy young 'uns up and down the sidewalk, trying to calm them down and give the moms a chance to eat. Our little family was no exception. Gwennan was fussy, and so Mark took her walking down to one corner, and then back up to the other. It was so funny to sit there and watch dad after dad pass by, bouncing and jiggling their crying babies, with Mark every now and then going by in the parade. Even though we didn't know each other, it created a bit of a community atmosphere there on the sidewalk outside MPC. When a baby would start cranking up, you could look over at the family and smile, and they would shrug, smile back, and the dad would pick up the baby and start walking.