Monday, September 22, 2008 11:07 PM CDT
COLUMN: IDOT must have picked color for my 'Friend' t-shirt
By HARRY REYNOLDS, Opinions Page Editor
hreynolds@jg-tc.com
The Special Olympics Family Festival, sponsored by Consolidated Communications, is the result of thousands of manhours of planning and execution.
All this work for one day of fun for approximately 1,000 people. The Olympians come in wheelchairs, they walk, they’re old, they’re young, they’re somewhere in between.
And they’ve all got distinct personalities. Which I think we forget sometimes; we forget they are human beings who want the thing we want most — to enjoy life.
Roughly 1,700 people volunteered to work at this year’s event. And that’s about the same as in previous years.
Employees of Consolidated have cheerfully carried the weight of the event since its inception. They spend a lot of their own time on the festival. They don’t have to do it, but they do.
I planned on getting to Lake Land College by 8:30 a.m. Saturday, having set the radio alarm, two other alarms and my cell phone alarms.
Let’s just say there are times when being nearly deaf has its advantages. This wasn’t one of them.
I walked out the door about 9 a.m., expecting a sunny morning, but it was raining. Rain is not good for outdoor events involving 2,700 people.
By the time I arrived, the rain had let up, but seriously threatened. Dark clouds spoke of unvented rage.
The family festival is restricted. Though I’ve been a Friend-for-a Day for the last 18 years, I still had to produce my driver’s license at registration.
If you know my wallet, you’re aware it’s a disaster, scraps of of leather — ragged, torn, the plastic brittle and clouding over.
Finding my driver’s license was difficult; it was the last thing I found, which is usually the case when you’re looking for something.
At least, I don’t have a purse. My wife carries everything in her purse. The most recent thing joining the crowd is a device you can use to shatter the window of your car should you drive off the road into a lake or river or if you live on the east or west coast.
Doris assures me the device, which looks like a stick of metal — should our car and its contents plunge into water — would allow us to get out of the car..
I finally extracted my driver’s license — the photograph alone horrifies men, women and children, and an occasional dog. Driver’s license photographs do that to people — good people, upstanding citizens, beautiful people (plenty of hair, mouths packed with even, gleaming choppers).
A driver’s license photograph rivals any police mug shot. When I saw actor Nick Nolte’s police mug shot, I nearly screamed in terror. He apparently had a hangover from a drinking binge resulting in an ill-advised decision to drive.
The woman helping me register to be a Friend-for-a-Day looked with obvious suspicion. I suspect she was a librarian.
You receive a t-shirt when you participate in the Special Olympics Family Festival. They come in different colors, depending whether you’re a worker, Friend-for-a-Day, Special Olympian, or those representing the places Olympians call home.
I thought maybe the Illinois Department of Transportation had picked out the t-shirt color for Friends-for-a-Day to wear.
I’m considering tying the t-shirt to what’s left of the back bumper of my little truck in hopes another drunk driver won’t plow into it.
Over the years I’ve collected a number of the SOFF t-shirts. I like the bright-colored ones. I wear them as night shirts — and lanterns.
When I get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, they’re pretty good substitutions for flashlights.
Of course, I wouldn’t be getting up so frequently if I went to the doctor and told him about those TV commercials about the old guys riding in a convertible who rotate pit stops.
But I’ve got to deal with the ED thing first. Ninety-nine percent of Americans have it; some guys even sing about it.
The theme of this year’s Special Olympics — which appeared on the front of t-shirts — was “SOFF rocks the ‘80s.”
The hundreds of student Friends-for-a-Day volunteers from Eastern Illinois University, Lake Land College students sported green t-shirts. I wouldn’t have taken to that shade of green if it were not what for was in some of them.
Just because I’m 65 closing in rapidly on 66, doesn’t mean I’m blind. Like most wise husbands, I’ve got great peripheral vision.
The college students bring a burst of energy and exuberance to the festival. For many, it is their first experience as Friend-for-a-Day. The coeds are more outgoing than the guys; they dance with the Olympians.
Olympians like Karaoke. I’ve never tried singing before a bunch of people. I’m sure they wouldn’t like it.
Contemplation of Karaoke drove me to consider bursting in on one of the Mattoon City Council’s caucuses — held from 6:30-7 p.m. in the little conference room across from the council chambers — and entertaining the mayor and commissioners.
This, I believe, would be the most effective way to send the council fleeing to the sanctuary of the council chambers where they would be greeted by the public.
When I was a young man courting Doris, I would sing to her. She professed to like it, but after we got married, her taste in music suddenly changed — at least that’s what she said.
I’m not sure I believe her.
I have noticed fellow Rotarians looking in disgust in my direction when we sing.
Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day, everybody had a good time and we all went home feeling a little better about ourselves.
I plan to be there next year if only to see what the color of my t-shirt will be. Meanwhile, I’ll make do with orange.
And save buying flashlight batteries.
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Read all over wrote on Sep 23, 2008 8:43 AM: