A few weeks ago, Will got some e-mails inviting him and his parents to come to a high school lacrosse opening party. He was quite excited so we went. It was held at the home of another player. His family lives up on the bench in Cedar Hills. It seems to me like their family ought to be attending Lone Peak High School, since it is closer to them. Anyway, the house was gorgeous, as was the view from the back yard!
The invite told the boys to bring a swimsuit and towel. After eating (it was a pot luck BBQ) and listening to the coaches and HS lacrosse board talk about tryouts, Friday pick-up games, and the team fundraiser, all the boys jumped into the pool.
After a while, they started to pull the typical teen aged boy stunts in the pool as all of the parents socialized and tolerantly looked on. First, they all got out and jumped into the pool together. Then they started diving off the diving board with one boy on the shoulders of another. Then, Will gave them all the fabulous idea of jumping off of the top of the slide.
There is a shot of Will just about to jump off the top of the slide. And, of course, there is the breathtaking view! Notice the temple all lit up?
Now. About the fundraiser. Someone in the lacrosse board has connections and arranged to get a BYU concession stand for the home football games! We signed up to work in the concession stand for three of the six home games. A portion of the sales go to the AFHS lacrosse team, and for each person working in the stand, Will gets $10 off his team fees. That means that after the four of us work three games, his fees will be down by $120!! Oh, yeah!
Yesterday was the first game that we worked at the concessions. I was assigned to work as a cashier. Helena became my right hand assistant, hollering out orders for me (although I tended to want to call them out myself) and working the soda fountain. Will worked as a soda-jerk at another station down the line, and Bill was a man-of-all-work in the background. He ran six or seven errands throughout the course of the evening down to the concessions supply depot to get stock we were running low on. Of course, I didn't know that until the evening was over and he told me, because I was so busy at my station that I only noticed him when he paused to put a hand on my shoulder or something.
We left the house at 1:30 in the afternoon. We were supposed to be at the stand at 2:00, but we didn't get there until 2:15 because traffic was pretty bad. The pre-game sales started at about 3:00. It was frustrating, at first, because everyone wanted to order a hot dog, but they weren't ready, yet! The ladies cooking the hot dogs had never done it before and were having technical difficulties. We had to turn away scores of people before the hot dogs were finally ready to sell.
The game started at 4:00, and we had a pretty steady stream of customers throughout the first two quarters. Half time was unbelievable! We served so many people!!! I can't believe how many people will pay such outrageous prices just for a hot dog and a soda ($6.50 for the dog and drink, or $7.50 for a polish dog and drink)! I handled more $20 bills than I can remember. Oh, and it was shocking to me how many people just whipped out a credit card to pay for concession food! I was SO GLAD that all of those sales were approved and I didn't have to tell anyone that their card was declined. Only one gentleman asked for a receipt, too. Out of literally hundreds that I served.
I was too busy during the game to take any pictures, so these shots are after the game and during clean up. This picture reminds me of a famous painting. In fact, I think I might paint this one!
Here is Will mopping the floor. That is his friend, Coulson, to the right of him, and Bill in the background in the blue hat.
Helena made it clear early in the evening that she was only there under duress, and that she could have found much more pleasant ways to spend her Saturday. However, I could tell that she was enjoying herself most of the time (except when she was embarrassed by her mother telling boys to get back to work). Throughout the evening, workers from other concession stands would occasionally show up at ours asking for a refill on their courtesy cup (concession workers are allowed to drink as much soda as they want, as long as they are NOT in the stand at the time). One boy, in particular, kept coming back to Helena's soda fountain for refills.
After the game was over, and while we were cleaning up, he suddenly showed up and began helping Helena do the dishes in our booth! Seeing as the work area was small, I couldn't help overhearing part of their conversation.
He asked her if she was a freshman. She said that, No, she was a junior. He was impressed by that and asked her what she was majoring in. Her answer of "oh, I don't know" took him by surprise. It only took a little longer for Helena to realize that he was referring to college, not high school! She quickly corrected the mistaken communication, and that seemed to make him happier, because he was, in fact, a freshman at BYU who had just turned in his mission papers! They chatted in a friendly way for about half an hour before he finally headed on his way. She later told me that he plans to major in engineering, but that she never learned his name, nor did she give him hers.
In the picture above, he is standing to Helena's right. All you can see of him is the baseball cap.
Here is a shot looking down the length of the concession stand. This gives you an idea of how crowded it is! Now imagine 24 people working full speed in this little space! It was crazy, and yet we did need every single person to get the job done. Oh, you can see the mystery freshman's back in this shot.
In the end, we finished up at about 8:30 and didn't get home until 9:00 at night. It was a long, long day, but fun despite the stress of it. Will can't wait for the next game in two weeks. I will be glad when all three of our commitments are filled.
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