Sometimes Rotarians have fun too. Wednesday 13th June was one of those days.
Congratulations to Cian O’Brien for organising “Kids Out” again this year. It was hard to tell who had the most fun or the most junk to eat.
The day started at about 10.00 am with the Rotarians meeting in “Mussar”, it was an excuse to take a day off work and finally get the car cleaned. It was also a great chance to renew old acquaintances from the other Rotary clubs, just standing around chatting in the sun. How bad for a Wednesday morning.
The kids and their minders started arriving at about 10.30 and the fun started. Steve as usual entertained the kids with his magic and balloons. It was a tonic to see the look of pure joy on their faces as Steve would blow a balloon and with a twist here and a turn there he would end up with a dog or a hat or whatever. Their innocence couldn’t figure out his magic (I think a few Rotarians where caught there also!!) as their squeals of joy at his different tricks cheered everyone up.
Then there was the junk. Bars and lemonade. More bars and more lemonade. And it wasn’t just the kids. (Note to self. Five bars are too many next year).
While all this was going on, cars were being carefully selected. These kids are not tactful. They don’t take prisoners. Your lovely clean car might be ignored completely in favour of the bigger one beside it. While the kids know their cars, your feelings, nay your ego is shattered as your cleaned and polished pride and joy is “dissed” into the second division.
Anyway, when they finally got fed up with playing with the police siren, and when the kids, now as high as kites, finally got into cars, it was time for the police escort to takes us to Chuckies. So traffic was stopped, red lights were ignored, rules or the road were for mere mortals. We had a police escort and a special cargo to deliver.
We arrived safely and it was time for the kids to burn off some of that adrenalin. There was every excuse to burn fat. Bucking broncos, slides, climbing frames, even indoor soccer. No expense was spared. With Gusto the kids burned off all those chocolate bars. (As if to prove our maturity of course, we Rotarians decided it was a much better idea to carry these bars around on out hips and tummies till another day)
When we Rotarians were exhausted from looking at all this hard work, it was time to bundle everyone into the cars again, with much horn blowing and hand waving, across town we went again. To McDonalds, in Blackpool. At this time Rotarians, now feeling guilty for not joining in with the kids in Chuckies, decided to make up for lost time and partook in this part of the day with enthusiasm. Chips, burgers, lemonade, chicken thingies…nothing was safe.
We got the kids high as kites ALL over again. It was a feeding frenzy. The kids also enjoyed it by the way.
Anyway times moves on. 2.00 pm came and it was time to say goodbye to the kids for another year. A doggie bag was given to each kid as they left in case they were suffering withdrawal symptoms and needed to get high again tomorrow.
One of my passengers, Amy, who loves loud music by the way, informed me it was her 6th “Kids Out” She missed the first two because she wasn’t in the school. She was better at counting than I was. I couldn’t believe it was 8 already. Anyway roll on next year. The kids had a great day. They absolutely loved it and they are really looking forward to next year already.
Somehow I think we will get more fun out of it than they will.
Harry Golden