The next day (Monday, for those keeping track) was all about the Magic Kingdom. We started in the morning with the myself, Jess, and Tyler, and then continued in the evening with Shannon and her family, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
We got there nice and early, and the park was largely unoccupied. We took the opportunity to go on a Buzz Lightyear ride a few times. You get a zapper and get to zap bad guys along a big, indoor track. Tyler got 1200 points, which isn't bad until you consider that I got nearly 200,000! I am the best at shooting things! I didn't brag at Tyler too much. We went on the ride twice cause there was no line. My favorite way to do Disney rides: quickly.
We also went on the Tomorrowland Peoplemover, which was a nice tour of the area. Another ride in the middle that's essentially just the Dumbo ride again (there are a lot of those, but Tyler does like them) and then a track where you can drive a car, though there is a guide bar in the middle so you don't crash into anything. That ride was terrible, everytime Tyler hit the bar, it jerked the wheel out of his hands. I took over the steering eventually and got us back home, but we were done with that one. Also, gasoline powered cars in Tomorrowland? Lame.
Mickey's Philharmagic was nice. It was a 3D show with some puffs of air and a lot of classical Disney tunes. The music was, as always, great to hear, even if the 3D was wonky. Tyler's favorite part was where Donald got shot at us at the end of the movie and when the house lights came on, you turned around to see an animatronic Donald Butt stuck in the wall. He laughed at that.
Small world, Tyler may have even remembered that one from before. We saw the big clock at the end chime and tell the time. Tyler wanted to have that happen every time, but we never got the timing right again.
We got some lunch (Disney is really, really good at feeding lots of people) and then Jess and Tyler went on a carousel while I wandered around and looked at stuff. I ran into a parade in the central area that was quite insistent that 1) it was time to party and 2) you needed to put your hands up.
Then we went on a Roller Coaster with Tyler. Definitely the most extreme ride he'd ever gone on, but he *loved* it. We went on it twice. He had a huge smile and kept saying "whee" as we zipped around corners. It was called "Barnstorming", in case you're curious to look it up, but Tyler was a huge fan (and just tall enough to ride on it. 40 inches turned out be a magic number for him, lots of fun rides at that height.)
Then we went on Pirates of the Caribbean, which Tyler liked, and then Splash Mountain, with may have been his favorite ride of all, surprisingly enough for us. He really liked the big drop at the end, though he closed his eyes because he "didn't want to get wet". The main reason he didn't get wet is that he is pretty short, and most of the water just went right over him.
We were exhausted at this point, and because we took a shuttle in, we just took a taxi back. We left the kids with Grandma, and, because we are crazy people, took the Hall family and went right back for a evening of more Disney.
It's called "Very Merry Christmas", and they limit the number of people that can go and keep the park open till midnight, which means you can go on lots of rides very quickly, if you want. They also have free Cookies and Hot Chocolate, which we got right after we got some coffee, because we needed the energy.
Also, we ended up having a waffle with Nutella for dinner. Not well balanced, but we had rides to do.
We did all the fast rides that Tyler wouldn't be able to do: the new 7 Dwarves ride which was not terribly exciting, but had a lot of neat things to look at. We did all three of the 'Mountains' (Space, Thunder, and Splash) twice each. I think I liked space mountain best, because Shannon kept shrieking at all the twists and turns. The longest time was involved in simply walking from the exit back to the entrance again.
We were outdoors for one of the fireworks displays and took a moment to observe and wonder. We had a nice spot, in between all the sites where they set off the fireworks. Some of them were so big and so loud that I could actually feel them a little bit when they went off. A fantastic finish and we even gave them some applause before running off to the next ride.
We completed the evening fully exhausted, doing a few last rides before piling into the truck to head back to the hotel. We fell asleep on the drive home, but didn't get to sleep until about 1:00 in the morning.
Casey was hungry at 4.
Sunday, December 7, 2014
Orlando, Part 2
Today was our Disney's Animal Kingdom day. It's a neat little companion park. We got up early, had some magic pancakes, and drove over with all of us (including Shannon and Family) in the Car. It was really nice to have a big car on this trip.
We actually got there a little before the park opened, so we hung out by the Christmas tree in the entrance and had some coffee. The place selling coffee also had gigantic Doughnuts and Cookies. I declined, but we ended up getting a cookie to share with everyone on the way out of the park.
They had some neat things to see on the way in, people were standing around with huge spiders in boxes and neat bones for the kids to touch. I liked that part. The first ride we went on was one of those 3d+things poking you and air spraying you theatres called "it's hard to be a bug". I liked it, but Tyler was terrified of the whole experience, and that was before the bugs attacked us. Fortunately, he was gone by then, he would have really been spooked by that.
Expedition to Everest was their big coaster, and we went on that with the Hall Boys. Tyler was too small, but we figured out you could do a parent swap and the second parent got to take two other people along, so we parlayed that into a couple of extra rides for interested kids.
They had a more Kid-friendly area nearby that we went to. It had a dumbo-style ride that Tyler went on three times and really liked. Nearby there was another ride that Tyler was tall enough for, a ride through a dark, animatronic dinoscape. It moved a lot. We told Tyler it might jostle him a bit, so he said the rid was a little "jossly". Was dark and spooky for him, too, but he felt brave for having done it. We got him a latex dino puppet to celebrate.
Nemo the musical. A 30-minute stage production about the nemo movie. Fun to watch, though Tyler wet his pants and had to use the restroom halfway through. Interesting staging tricks to move the fish around the stage.
The Safari was next, a wide, segregated area with animals that they let roam 'free' and big jeeps that drive through. We saw a lot of neat animals, Rhino, Zebra, Giraffes, and several more whose name I don't remember. We took lots of pictures, but I can't figure out how to get the blogger app to upload, so I'll have to share them another way.
We took a train to another area about conservation, the train ride was neat to see all the cages and other centers that they use to take care of the animals from the Safari. At the end of the ride they had some more animal attractions: cute little tamarind monkeys, a petting zoo, and a presentation with a few animals. I like any place with a petting zoo, and the cow they had was very friendly.
They had a Bird show as well that we went to. Some of them flew *very* close to my head. My favorite was actually during the pre-show where a parrot had been trained to take bottles and cans to the recycle bins, one flew by my head so close I could have touched him. The show itself had some great birds, too. Parrots, a hawk, an Owl, and many more. Tyler liked it the best when one of the guys came out from the stage and sat on a bench next to us.
Then we caught a Lion King stage show that had clearly been inspired by Cirque de Solei. They had some animatronics that were *stunningly* impressive. They had a Simba that moved so often and with such detail that I was several times convinced their had to be someone inside. I don't think their was, though. Jessie's favorite part was watching Tyler's excited expression. He liked the performance so much he actually clapped on his own.
We did a couple more parent-swap rides on the Everest Coaster as the sun fell, and then we all made our way back home, put the kids to sleep, and then fell asleep soon after.
-N
We actually got there a little before the park opened, so we hung out by the Christmas tree in the entrance and had some coffee. The place selling coffee also had gigantic Doughnuts and Cookies. I declined, but we ended up getting a cookie to share with everyone on the way out of the park.
They had some neat things to see on the way in, people were standing around with huge spiders in boxes and neat bones for the kids to touch. I liked that part. The first ride we went on was one of those 3d+things poking you and air spraying you theatres called "it's hard to be a bug". I liked it, but Tyler was terrified of the whole experience, and that was before the bugs attacked us. Fortunately, he was gone by then, he would have really been spooked by that.
Expedition to Everest was their big coaster, and we went on that with the Hall Boys. Tyler was too small, but we figured out you could do a parent swap and the second parent got to take two other people along, so we parlayed that into a couple of extra rides for interested kids.
They had a more Kid-friendly area nearby that we went to. It had a dumbo-style ride that Tyler went on three times and really liked. Nearby there was another ride that Tyler was tall enough for, a ride through a dark, animatronic dinoscape. It moved a lot. We told Tyler it might jostle him a bit, so he said the rid was a little "jossly". Was dark and spooky for him, too, but he felt brave for having done it. We got him a latex dino puppet to celebrate.
Nemo the musical. A 30-minute stage production about the nemo movie. Fun to watch, though Tyler wet his pants and had to use the restroom halfway through. Interesting staging tricks to move the fish around the stage.
The Safari was next, a wide, segregated area with animals that they let roam 'free' and big jeeps that drive through. We saw a lot of neat animals, Rhino, Zebra, Giraffes, and several more whose name I don't remember. We took lots of pictures, but I can't figure out how to get the blogger app to upload, so I'll have to share them another way.
We took a train to another area about conservation, the train ride was neat to see all the cages and other centers that they use to take care of the animals from the Safari. At the end of the ride they had some more animal attractions: cute little tamarind monkeys, a petting zoo, and a presentation with a few animals. I like any place with a petting zoo, and the cow they had was very friendly.
They had a Bird show as well that we went to. Some of them flew *very* close to my head. My favorite was actually during the pre-show where a parrot had been trained to take bottles and cans to the recycle bins, one flew by my head so close I could have touched him. The show itself had some great birds, too. Parrots, a hawk, an Owl, and many more. Tyler liked it the best when one of the guys came out from the stage and sat on a bench next to us.
Then we caught a Lion King stage show that had clearly been inspired by Cirque de Solei. They had some animatronics that were *stunningly* impressive. They had a Simba that moved so often and with such detail that I was several times convinced their had to be someone inside. I don't think their was, though. Jessie's favorite part was watching Tyler's excited expression. He liked the performance so much he actually clapped on his own.
We did a couple more parent-swap rides on the Everest Coaster as the sun fell, and then we all made our way back home, put the kids to sleep, and then fell asleep soon after.
-N
Orlando, Day 1
I like writing these, mostly for me. It's always fun to look back and remember them.later on. So, first day!
Tyler spent most of the morning being a big jerk. We had to put him in time out a couple of times, but after lunch and a nap he calmed down. We picked him up from his nap and went right to the plane to go to Orlando!
Flight went really well, our plane had TVs on the back of the seats, so Tyler pretty much just watched TV the entire way. I got to watch Lucy. Fun movie, dumb premise. Casey slept on Jessie most of the way. Jessie didn't seem to mind.
When we landed, Tyler ran up and gave Grandma a big running hug. He's getting good at that.
We all got to the hotel and fell asleep. We set Tyler up with a long sofa mattress in the closet. He really liked having his own room.
The next morning, we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel. The place had 'magic pancakes'. It was a couple of robots that just sat there and would spit out a hot, fresh pancake every 20 seconds or so as needed. Tyler really liked the magic pancakes. I saw the thing break once at it just spit out one, huge pancake.
Our first stop on this, our mostly 'relaxing and hanging out with family' day, was just Downtown Disney. We took both the kids and Grammie and had to park a little far away from where the action was, but our first stop was the Lego store. We stayed there for like an hour. They had a thing in front where you could build your own Lego Car and race it down a ramp. Tyler was a huge fan. The rest of the time he spent inside at the place where you can make your own Minifigures. He made a few and we got them for him. He really liked having "lego guys' to play with. He would attach things to their feet and say they were Lord Business. You have to have seen the Lego Movie to get the Joke.
We went back home to meet Anne-Marie, Jessie's cousin, and their little one. He's one-and-a-bit, so he can walk but not talk, and he thought Tyler was the Bees Knees. When we had to put Tyler down for a nap, he cried because his friend was gone. Eventually, though, Shannon, Jessie's Sister, and her two older kids showed up. They played with the little cousin.
We all went out to a nearby park to take some pictures and let the kids play. Organizing that many young kids is always a challenge, but we managed. I haven't looked at the pictures yet, actually. I probably should. Anyway, the kids had a blast on the playground and got out a lot of energy. Then dinner!
We had reservations for Bucca Di Beppo, but as it turns out the place we were going was in a mall, and for those of you looking at a calendar, this was Black Friday. Fortunately, we gave ourselves plenty of leeway, and once we got past the traffic getting out of the place, parking wasn't that hard. We made it right on time. Good for us.
We were at the Pope Table, which is huge and round and has a couple of neat features. 1) A huge lazy Susan that all the food goes on so everyone can eat it. 2) The Pope's head in the middle (yes, the current one) 3) The top is arched so that the person directly across from you gets your voice funneled right into your ears. It's really odd, but neat. We ordered so goddamn much food you have no idea. We put a pretty good dent in it before we all got stuffed, and then jessie ordered dessert. She got a brownie sundae the size of Casey. Collectively we polished it off, but it took some work.
We were loud and laughed a lot, and since our table was special, we got featured on the 'intro tour' a few times. We started toasting people when they came around for the tour. We got a lot of smiles from the wait staff for that. Also I got to give our server a big tip, which felt nice.
Home and food comas for all. Anne-Marie drove home with her family, but Shannon and her family stayed in the hotel near us and joined us for a few Disney days.
-N
Tyler spent most of the morning being a big jerk. We had to put him in time out a couple of times, but after lunch and a nap he calmed down. We picked him up from his nap and went right to the plane to go to Orlando!
Flight went really well, our plane had TVs on the back of the seats, so Tyler pretty much just watched TV the entire way. I got to watch Lucy. Fun movie, dumb premise. Casey slept on Jessie most of the way. Jessie didn't seem to mind.
When we landed, Tyler ran up and gave Grandma a big running hug. He's getting good at that.
We all got to the hotel and fell asleep. We set Tyler up with a long sofa mattress in the closet. He really liked having his own room.
The next morning, we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel. The place had 'magic pancakes'. It was a couple of robots that just sat there and would spit out a hot, fresh pancake every 20 seconds or so as needed. Tyler really liked the magic pancakes. I saw the thing break once at it just spit out one, huge pancake.
Our first stop on this, our mostly 'relaxing and hanging out with family' day, was just Downtown Disney. We took both the kids and Grammie and had to park a little far away from where the action was, but our first stop was the Lego store. We stayed there for like an hour. They had a thing in front where you could build your own Lego Car and race it down a ramp. Tyler was a huge fan. The rest of the time he spent inside at the place where you can make your own Minifigures. He made a few and we got them for him. He really liked having "lego guys' to play with. He would attach things to their feet and say they were Lord Business. You have to have seen the Lego Movie to get the Joke.
We went back home to meet Anne-Marie, Jessie's cousin, and their little one. He's one-and-a-bit, so he can walk but not talk, and he thought Tyler was the Bees Knees. When we had to put Tyler down for a nap, he cried because his friend was gone. Eventually, though, Shannon, Jessie's Sister, and her two older kids showed up. They played with the little cousin.
We all went out to a nearby park to take some pictures and let the kids play. Organizing that many young kids is always a challenge, but we managed. I haven't looked at the pictures yet, actually. I probably should. Anyway, the kids had a blast on the playground and got out a lot of energy. Then dinner!
We had reservations for Bucca Di Beppo, but as it turns out the place we were going was in a mall, and for those of you looking at a calendar, this was Black Friday. Fortunately, we gave ourselves plenty of leeway, and once we got past the traffic getting out of the place, parking wasn't that hard. We made it right on time. Good for us.
We were at the Pope Table, which is huge and round and has a couple of neat features. 1) A huge lazy Susan that all the food goes on so everyone can eat it. 2) The Pope's head in the middle (yes, the current one) 3) The top is arched so that the person directly across from you gets your voice funneled right into your ears. It's really odd, but neat. We ordered so goddamn much food you have no idea. We put a pretty good dent in it before we all got stuffed, and then jessie ordered dessert. She got a brownie sundae the size of Casey. Collectively we polished it off, but it took some work.
We were loud and laughed a lot, and since our table was special, we got featured on the 'intro tour' a few times. We started toasting people when they came around for the tour. We got a lot of smiles from the wait staff for that. Also I got to give our server a big tip, which felt nice.
Home and food comas for all. Anne-Marie drove home with her family, but Shannon and her family stayed in the hotel near us and joined us for a few Disney days.
-N
Tyler and the Shingwovel
Tyler invented a new word, I thought you all should know about it, because it's for something that I'm pretty sure no default word exists for. You know that thing you use to wrap up Christmas lights, one that has long sides? Do you know what the word for that thing is? I do.
Feel free to use this word as you need, when defeating bad guys and putting them in jail, or what have you. Just make sure you credit Tyler as appropriate. It's his word.
-N
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Kidneys etc
I'm pretty sure everyone here knows about this, but I wanted to note in the family timeline that I'm planning to donate a kidney. I've been planning to do this for a long time now, but I wrote about it here, in case you haven't seen that yet.
Perhaps Kels or even a guest blogger will be interested in sharing more about what that looks like to Team GW. Perhaps they will be interested in writing for my hypothetical book of short stories about kidney donation. If finding a job takes too long, that's going to be what I work on to keep myself busy. More on that later.
Things are good here- we are planning a camping trip to the Olympics for Thanksgiving, and STILL get to eat stuffing with the family this Sunday. Work is winding down, but I feel like this is a nice time of year for some free time.
Perhaps Kels or even a guest blogger will be interested in sharing more about what that looks like to Team GW. Perhaps they will be interested in writing for my hypothetical book of short stories about kidney donation. If finding a job takes too long, that's going to be what I work on to keep myself busy. More on that later.
Things are good here- we are planning a camping trip to the Olympics for Thanksgiving, and STILL get to eat stuffing with the family this Sunday. Work is winding down, but I feel like this is a nice time of year for some free time.
Sunday, November 16, 2014
More Kids, by Volume
I still have the same number of kids, but it's struck me that you are continually getting more kid available. Especially in those early months, you get pounds and pounds of kid added on every month. They're older now, and doing different things, would you like to hear about them?
Casey is still the smiliest baby in the world. She still only has her two bottom teeth, but she will show those puppies to *anyone*. She loves to see new faces and give them her biggest smile, it really melts the heart. She's crawling, now, too. Properly crawling, even. She had been doing some productive army-crawl stuff, but now she gets up on all four limbs and covers *distance*. We are officially at the point where you have to be careful, because the place where you put her down may not be where you need to go to pick her up. This effect can be carefully mitigated by surrounding her with toys, so that if she tries to escape there is something to distract her attention and get stuffed into her mouth. Swords, oddly enough, are a big hit in this regard.
I'll tell you the cutest way that this shows up, though. You'll be doing something else, either on your own or with Tyler, and tiny fingers will grab your toes. That part is pretty nice.
Also, she likes to crawl up to my pants and put her mouth (her always so-drooly mouth) on my pants. I'm not sure if it's a kiss or if she's trying to eat me. Though given how she interacts with nearly everything at this point, I suspect it's the eating one.
The one thing we're a little concerned with is that she's not made much linguistic progress. She's still pretty limited to raspberries, vowels, and "kkkkkkkkkk". Which I guess is a consonant. We'll get her checked out to make sure there's nothing wrong, but she may just be waiting until she knows what to do with communication before just *flaunting* it all the time.
Tyler grows. We've implemented a plan that I rather like. If Tyler does his chore (feeding the cats) and eats his dinner (still 50/50, I put lots of veggies in things) he get 15 minute of ipad time. He doesn't yet realize it, but this isn't a kindness for him. For us, it gives us a reprieve from having to keep him always entertained, and it serves as something else we can take away if he's being bad. I feel pretty Machiavellian when I think about it.
He likes to play 'Good guy and Bad guy' with me, but I'm always the bad guy. I told him I don't like to be the bad guy, and he said I could be the bad guy for a while and then be the good guy later. So we did that until he realized that he was going to have to be the bad guy, and he didn't like that. So we talked about how you have to share if you want people to play with you. You sometimes have to do nice things for other people if you want them to do nice things for you. He was quiet for a while after that.
Today, He said I could be the good guy and he would be the bad guy. We switched after a while, but I felt proud about that one.
Also I got sick this weekend, and now the entire household is coughing pretty much all night. I've spent some nights in the guest bedroom with the monitors just to let Jess sleep. It's noisy. But we did have a date night, the two of us. We went to a board game Cafe. Think game store, but they will also sell you beer or coffee. We played Lords of Waterdeep and "A Few Acres of Snow" and Jessie kicked my butt at both of them. She's vicious.
-N
Casey is still the smiliest baby in the world. She still only has her two bottom teeth, but she will show those puppies to *anyone*. She loves to see new faces and give them her biggest smile, it really melts the heart. She's crawling, now, too. Properly crawling, even. She had been doing some productive army-crawl stuff, but now she gets up on all four limbs and covers *distance*. We are officially at the point where you have to be careful, because the place where you put her down may not be where you need to go to pick her up. This effect can be carefully mitigated by surrounding her with toys, so that if she tries to escape there is something to distract her attention and get stuffed into her mouth. Swords, oddly enough, are a big hit in this regard.
I'll tell you the cutest way that this shows up, though. You'll be doing something else, either on your own or with Tyler, and tiny fingers will grab your toes. That part is pretty nice.
Also, she likes to crawl up to my pants and put her mouth (her always so-drooly mouth) on my pants. I'm not sure if it's a kiss or if she's trying to eat me. Though given how she interacts with nearly everything at this point, I suspect it's the eating one.
The one thing we're a little concerned with is that she's not made much linguistic progress. She's still pretty limited to raspberries, vowels, and "kkkkkkkkkk". Which I guess is a consonant. We'll get her checked out to make sure there's nothing wrong, but she may just be waiting until she knows what to do with communication before just *flaunting* it all the time.
Tyler grows. We've implemented a plan that I rather like. If Tyler does his chore (feeding the cats) and eats his dinner (still 50/50, I put lots of veggies in things) he get 15 minute of ipad time. He doesn't yet realize it, but this isn't a kindness for him. For us, it gives us a reprieve from having to keep him always entertained, and it serves as something else we can take away if he's being bad. I feel pretty Machiavellian when I think about it.
He likes to play 'Good guy and Bad guy' with me, but I'm always the bad guy. I told him I don't like to be the bad guy, and he said I could be the bad guy for a while and then be the good guy later. So we did that until he realized that he was going to have to be the bad guy, and he didn't like that. So we talked about how you have to share if you want people to play with you. You sometimes have to do nice things for other people if you want them to do nice things for you. He was quiet for a while after that.
Today, He said I could be the good guy and he would be the bad guy. We switched after a while, but I felt proud about that one.
Also I got sick this weekend, and now the entire household is coughing pretty much all night. I've spent some nights in the guest bedroom with the monitors just to let Jess sleep. It's noisy. But we did have a date night, the two of us. We went to a board game Cafe. Think game store, but they will also sell you beer or coffee. We played Lords of Waterdeep and "A Few Acres of Snow" and Jessie kicked my butt at both of them. She's vicious.
-N
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Gold medal lesson
I've been reading "The Boys on the Boat," an early birthday present from Mom. The book resonates for me because I went to the University of Washington during the years the boat in question was hung in a commons room at the Husky Union Building. At least two or three times a week, I'd walk past the boat and the small plaque that said something like "Gold Medal, Berlin Olympics, 1936" and feel an unspoken, surge of pride in our Husky heritage.
I had no idea of how much effort and drama went into winning that race. Read the book, please.
The part I like best is towards the end. The UW crew has just blown away the other crews in the US Olympic trials in Princeton NJ. The big wheels in the Olympic committee take the UW coach aside and tell him, oh by the way our committee has no money to actually send you to Berlin. If you can't raise $5,000 by the end of the week, we'll have no choice but to send the second place boat from the Pennsylvania Athletic Club.
Remember this as the height of the Great Depression. Penn may have had wealthy people standing by with pockets full of money, but hardly anybody else did.
The books says the UW coach, Al Ulbrickson, didn't bat an eye. He immediately huddled with sportswriters from the Seattle P-I and the Seattle Times, who started writing dramatic columns and headlines to be telegraphed back to Seattle overnight. Then the book continues, "within minutes, phones began to ring in Seattle."
The director of the UW Alumni started calling prominent UW graduates. The Seattle Chamber of Commerce sent telegrams to every chamber in "every city, town, and hamlet in the state." UW "coeds grabbed tin cans and started going door to door." Hometowns of the nine crew members sent what they could, $50 from Montesano, the timber town on the coast, $50 from Bellingham, and on and on. In the first, day UW students sold $1,500 worth of lapel tags for 50 cents each.
"At the end of the second day, T.E. Davies, chairman of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce put a $5,000 certified check in an envelope and airmailed it to Al Ulbrickson."
Call me idealistic, but that's my idea of what people, especially Northwest people, can do when we work together. Maybe someday we can do it again.
I had no idea of how much effort and drama went into winning that race. Read the book, please.
The part I like best is towards the end. The UW crew has just blown away the other crews in the US Olympic trials in Princeton NJ. The big wheels in the Olympic committee take the UW coach aside and tell him, oh by the way our committee has no money to actually send you to Berlin. If you can't raise $5,000 by the end of the week, we'll have no choice but to send the second place boat from the Pennsylvania Athletic Club.
Remember this as the height of the Great Depression. Penn may have had wealthy people standing by with pockets full of money, but hardly anybody else did.
The books says the UW coach, Al Ulbrickson, didn't bat an eye. He immediately huddled with sportswriters from the Seattle P-I and the Seattle Times, who started writing dramatic columns and headlines to be telegraphed back to Seattle overnight. Then the book continues, "within minutes, phones began to ring in Seattle."
The director of the UW Alumni started calling prominent UW graduates. The Seattle Chamber of Commerce sent telegrams to every chamber in "every city, town, and hamlet in the state." UW "coeds grabbed tin cans and started going door to door." Hometowns of the nine crew members sent what they could, $50 from Montesano, the timber town on the coast, $50 from Bellingham, and on and on. In the first, day UW students sold $1,500 worth of lapel tags for 50 cents each.
"At the end of the second day, T.E. Davies, chairman of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce put a $5,000 certified check in an envelope and airmailed it to Al Ulbrickson."
Call me idealistic, but that's my idea of what people, especially Northwest people, can do when we work together. Maybe someday we can do it again.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)