Well my wife volunteered to sit at a booth for our school. The booth was to spread the word about an upcoming event called
"Much Ado About Sebastopol" It is one of our districts biggest cash cows for raising money for the school district. She took the only needed spot which was the tail end of the event. She asked if I wanted to join her as she is a bit shy and I am not. We arrived at the booth and took our places. I had no idea that a volunteer many years ago had built a small display for kids to play with at the booth. It was a clever device that launched a beanbag rat at a castle. The kids were OK with it and it drew a few kids at a time, I on the other hand was very bored. As I sat I looked at the castle and realized that this could be better. I took my bike and headed for home. When I got home guess what I grabbed, the only thing we have thousands of...playmobil. I got knights, princes, eunuchs, a priest, loads of dragons and a king and queen. I stood all the klickies on the castle, set the dragons on put the king and queen on the top and set out to entertain the tots. I let the kiddos send the rats flying at now a well armed castle. The crowd went wild, kids were now yelling to "take down the castle!" "I killed the queen!" "I want to take down that dragon!"
I would let each kid have six shots and I would announce each hit. "Oh you killed 2 foot soldiers", "You knocked down and killed the dragon", "Looks like you want to kill the royal family"
. As more and more people joined in the yelling grew. The yelling attracted more people. Soon there were 30 people watching and 15 kids in line. The parents were smiling from ear to ear. Even adults with out kids could not resist watching. The cameras started flashing, the Iphone videos were rolling. I could not believe the responce. There were people all over in aw of the spectacle. Other booths started getting jealous. We from now on had a yelling crowd in front of us as other booths could barely keep peoples attention for seconds. The kids were chanting at each other to "take the castle". I loved the reaction when a 4 year old would hit the priest and I would yell out "yay you killed the priest" The parent would have this look on their face that is impossible to describe. We live in a very white, successful hippy, yuppie, small town. Killing priest is not what you do
but those kids loved it
and I loved hosting it. Many kids walking by wanted to know how much it cost to try and what you win. I would respond, "It will cost you patience, for the line. You will win joy, for your soul"
My kids were with their Grandfather for the day so at the end I took them to see. We reset it all up so they could try and I snapped a few shots when the fair was over.
There were knights on horses and soldiers carring a keg at the bottom. Archers to the sides. Soldier's on the mid wall. On the right were the royal prince and his family. On the left were the priest and eunuch. Then the dragons and at the very top, king and queen.
