The Valders Car Show

Two years ago,
Oh Crap. Let me preface this.

Our Village holds a picnic every summer. If you imagine any midwestern town, you can most likely imagine what our picnic is. We have a softball tournament, a horseshoes tournament, a few bands on friday and saturday night, and some concession stands where we sell beer, soda, and food. There is a big parade on Sunday noon, and then the whole village (and then some) comes down to the park to take in all the other stuff.

It is all sponsored by our villages Lions Club.

But what we have not had in the eight or so years that I have lived here is a car show. Not that having one is really very important to anything, but it bears noting that our attendance at the picnic on sunday has been steadily declining over the last few years.

My own involvement in our community has been very very slow to progress. Some people, like my wife, join a new community or organization and are instantly involved, coordinating things, giving thier time, you have met these people, and you know the type.

You also know my type. We join the same community, the same organization, and find ourselves idle. Any involvement we have is by being dragged, sometimes kicking and screaming, into the midst, at which point we find ourselves having a tremendous amount of fun, and increasingly willing to work.

So lets try that again,

Two years ago my total involvement in our community picnic was the fact that I had gotten into the habit of spending friday and saturday night pouring beer in one of the concession stands for the late shift each year. The Lions call it tending bar, but since our menu consists of three kinds of canned beer and one kind of tap beer, (no matter what kind of tap beer you order, I nod my head and pour you a bud light) I refer to it as pouring beer.

The professor, coincidentally, always seems to have his own picnic, revolving around our car buddies, the same saturday. So, two years ago, I brought my freshly primered and (sort of) drivable pickup truck from his party directly to my shift at pouring beer.

After explaining to one our villages more involved people where I had been, She posed to me the question, "Why dont we have a car show next year at the picnic?" I thought, In the words of Herrick Kimball, (see blogs that I follow) that it was a whizbang idea.

Last year, the lions didnt really grab the idea. By the time they started planning, I already had plans to be out of town for the day of the show. Still, they managed to arrange about 40 cars for the "display" It worked out well.

This year, I again was tapped to be on the committee. Turns out, we started planning in January because the lions were impressed with last year and wanted a "real" car show this year.

Finally I reach tonights thought.

Any Event Involving a Lot of People is Going to be a Lot of Fricking Work.

We seven spent the better part of eight months planning, and executing all of the things involved in putting on a car show. WE solicited sponsors, help, space, financed trophies, the list goes on and on and on.

i have said before that I love this little town of which I am slowly becoming a part. We turned out over a hundred show cars. But that isnt the point. So Many People Helped Us Make This Successful.

Our sponsors never batted an eye about dishing out a hundred dollars per class. Or about donating door prizes, or raffle prizes. One of our local volunteer organizations sent us six people for seven hours to help help in any way that they could. Foose and Puller ran Puller's gator around and sold beer and soda all afternoon for free. Everyone helped. And everyone had a good time.

The crazy thing about living in a little pond is that you actually can make a difference. WE raised a very large amount of money, (in small town terms) for the betterment of our village. We contributed to the members of our village having a really fun sunday afternoon. And we arent anybody special. It was fun.

What I wonder though, is how much better the world would be if everyone found some way to contribute to the village, city, or neighborhood around them. The state highway that runs through our town is involved just east of town in one of those "adopt a highway" programs. Last weekend, I saw the president of our villages biggest employer picking up trash by himself in that ditch because his company (i think) adopted that highway. Damn. Where were the employees of that company. Where were the residents of this village for that matter.

Go do something to make your world better. For everybody around you.