A Little Bit Different Every Time

Posted byrandy@letters-to-rachel.memorialPosted inUpdates From the Abandoned PlanetTags:, , , , ,

Dearest Rachel –

So, as I promised, I’m going to try and fill you in on everything leading up to – and during – the Family Fest. While most of it is fairly consistent from year to year – particularly my own station, which hasn’t essentially changed in over a decade (and possibly even two; gosh, that makes me feel so old) – there’s always something a little bit different every single time for me to tell you about.

And since I don’t have a lot of time during the Fest to tell you about it, I’m going to put together a collection of pictures to do most of the talking for me. Granted, they’re mostly from beforehand since, once everything is in motion and the kids (and parents) show up, it’s just go-go-go, but at least they serve as literal snapshots of everything that went into the event.

We couldn’t get much accomplished last night, in terms of setup for my own station (although most of the rest of the church was put together in reasonably short order last night; between everyone that showed up, it barely took more than an hour). Steve had only put about fifty holes in the pumpkin before bringing it to church, and he forgot to bring the drill with him both last night and today…
Fortunately, what he did remember to bring today was the plastic pumpkin from a couple of years ago; this might be the beginning of a new tradition, in terms of what holds the lollipops.
And speaking of something that might well become ‘traditional’ going forward, I decided not to concern myself with getting a new costume this year; the pumpkin sweatshirt, accented with green pants, cap and polo, is more than serviceable, and quite appropriate, given that a pumpkin is the centerpiece of the game station that I’ve been manning all these years.
However, these green scrub pants, which had an excessively long inseam even when I first bought them, are even less form-fitting than they were before. I keep having to hike them up every now and again, since the waist is too ample, even with a tightened drawstring. Otherwise, I find myself stepping on my cuffs in short order. Ironically, however, while I would probably look better in it now than I did two years ago (or even ten years ago), I’ve become too self-conscious to put myself back into that black morph suit. That will have to wait until I get back to my college weight, at least.
One thing that I’ve finally caught onto is that the kids care more about actually winning than the prize itself. So this time around, I’ve got a lot more smaller prizes, as opposed to the literal handful of big ones that we used to distribute back in the day.
As has been the case since we resumed holding the Fest after Covid, it’s been during the middle of the day, and half of the games (and the bouncy castle – remember when that used to be squeezed inside the church lobby?) are situated outside. Good thing my ‘costume’ is several layers thick.

Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, Daniel had caught a cold a few days before, and concluded that it wouldn’t be good for himself or the kids if he were to attempt to help out. Given that I was posted outside, it might not have made much difference for the kids, but it was definitely a good call on his part. It also worked out reasonably well for me, too, as I was paired with a volunteer who attended the Spanish services, and could address the parents and kids whose lingua alma I wasn’t able to converse in.

Bear in mind, these pictures were taken before the parents and kids arrived; these are just the volunteers getting things prepared for the event. And while I never got a chance to see inside while the crowds were there, I’d say that if you could imagine this three or four times as dense, you’d have a rough idea of what things looked like.
And of course, it wouldn’t be an event without food; the coffee bar branched out considerably for the occasion, including complementary donuts, coffee and (I think) hot cider, while nachos and hot dogs were available for a nominal price. I like the one clerk dressed as a cup noodle, but it occurs to me that someone should have had a costume like a convenience store clerk, especially the fellow setting out the dogs on the stereotypical hot roller.
By the way, honey, I managed to steer clear of this area after taking this photo; it’s the weekend, after all, and I have to do my usual (for now) willpower check.

Thanks to preparing so many extra prizes, we didn’t have the usual problem of kids coming around to cherry-pick lollipops off of the pumpkin, trying to ‘win’ something they really weren’t likely to have really wanted (I mean, those big suckers are cool looking and all, but they always struck me as a little unwieldy to actually eat. Besides, many of the kids were young and small enough to be violating the old dictum ‘never eat anything bigger than your head’ if they were to win). Come to that, each year seems to have more kids who are constantly accompanied by their parents, rather than running around on their own recognizance, thanks to the average age seemingly getting younger each year. You’d think it would go the other way around as time progressed, but whatever…

In any event, everything basically closed down after an hour and fifteen minutes; the rest of the time, our guests were in the auditorium for the costume contest, while we volunteers proceeded to work on teardown of the games and the like. We had the tables and chairs stripped and returned to their places in storage in less than half an hour, while the contest was still going on – although you might have been disappointed to not have been able to compete like we used to be able to. Given the ordinary nature of my getup, however, I didn’t have a problem with it – and it was kind of nice to be able to actually leave early, as I really needed to get out of those baggy scrubs before returning to work the booth an hour or so later.

But before I left, I had to salvage the prizes that hadn’t been won, as well as the lollipops that there hadn’t been time for the kids to pick; if nothing else, I’d left my marker in the latter bag. I know this meant I was taking some of the candy home rather than distributing it, but at this point, these are more like supplies for the game rather than just candy.

All in all, things were relatively smooth and efficient, from my perspective. To be sure, we were practically foisting candy on the kids as the hour went on whether they ‘won’ their attempt or not (the donations we received from the congregation were beyond ample), but none of the kids seemed to be bothered by it – and even the parents were mostly okay with it, given the milleu, only requiring that their little ones offer a perfunctory ‘thank you’ as they filled their hands (and subsequently, bags and buckets) with all manner of confectionaries.

Except for this one; last night’s volunteer crew was opening a bunch of bulk bags of candy for distribution, and I ripped open this bag to discover that it didn’t have individual fun size candies, but rather a single, large glob of cotton candy. I was told I could either throw it out or bring it home, as it certainly couldn’t be used in its current state. Daniel enjoyed it immensely.

So that’s basically how everything went down today; not all that different from previous years, but just enough so as to make it worth commenting on. It seemed to be over and done with in a flash, but maybe the time goes by faster when we’re dealing with these crowds.

Anyway, honey, I’ll keep in touch. Keep an eye on me, and wish me luck; I’m going to need it.

Published by randy@letters-to-rachel.memorial

I am Rachel's husband. Was. I'm still trying to deal with it. I probably always will be.

2 thoughts on “A Little Bit Different Every Time”

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