Friday, August 31, 2007

Guest of the Week

Each week, I'll try to outline my favorite guest or guests of the week. Sometimes, the guests will be memorable because of how much fun they were having, or how much fun they were to work with. Sometimes, they will be memorable for less noble reasons; bad behavior for example. Sometimes, it will just be something funny they said or did. Of course, I'll never identify anyone by name (like I ever know their names anyway). I'm not mean, you know!

This week's guest was just sitting on a park bench minding her own business. She was waiting with a small child in a stroller for the rest of her family to come off of a ride. Since she was sitting along my spot on the parade route, I went over to speak with her, to make sure she knew the parade was coming so she didn't end up trapped on the wrong side of the street away from her group. Turns out, she didn't understand any English at all. The child was crying, and she tried to explain in Spanish (or Portuguese, I'm not too good at telling the difference) that the child was upset because everyone else was riding a ride. I asked if the child would like to be in the parade. She couldn't understand me. "Su nino ... in la parade?" I stupidly attempted Spanish. She smiled at my attempt but couldn't quite understand me still. Suddenly, a flurry of activity. The rest of the family had arrived, Dad with 3 other children ranging from around 6-years-old to maybe 10. The kids spoke English. "What did she say?" the mother asked her children in Spanish. I repeated my question; "Would you all like to be IN the parade?" There was so much excitement that you'd have thought I'd given them the keys to the castle! I explained that they'd be helping carry the follow rope at the end of the parade, that they'd need to walk the whole parade route, and need to be free for about 30 minutes to help us. They'd get to sit right at the beginning of the parade route. There were hugs and jumping up and down and every kid was positively twittering with anticipation. Even Mom & Dad looked about ready to burst!

I showed my group to the special follow rope viewing area, and left to return to my spot. As the parade ended, I turned to see my family, smiling ear to ear and waving frantically as they made their way down the route!

Sometimes, fun is what you make it! That's why my family from wherever, who BECAME the parade that day, is my FAMILY OF THE WEEK.

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