Anthony Bourdain? News coverage of almost hysteric proportions, but no-one except my elder son has ever heard of him in our extended household, and we're not exactly living under a rock. Could it be because we're not fans of American TV?
Yesterday was the Old Sodbury Village Day, an annual event where we try to raise funds for the fabric of the village hall, as well as provide a day of family entertainment and fun.
Yesterday was the Old Sodbury Village Day, an annual event where we try to raise funds for the fabric of the village hall, as well as provide a day of family entertainment and fun.
Being on the Village Hall Committee, along with Hay, it's our responsibility to come up with various ideas for the entertainment. My contribution this year was arranging for a local archery club to attend; we get an archery section of the local football field, where we hold the event, and the archery club gets the chance to drum up membership from the local community - a win-win scenario.
I usually volunteer to be in charge of the car parking in the adjacent field, but apparently is was also my idea this year to ask people for donations for parking, rather than it being free. I'd forgotten, but managed to rush home and get a bucket, hastily write "PARKING DONATIONS" on it and position it by the field entrance before people started to arrive.
It was interesting to watch people as they went past the bucket after having parked their cars. Some slung in 20 or 30p, that being all they had in change; many deposited 50p; most threw in £1 and some even threw in a £2 coin. A very small number would walk past sheepishly, make no eye contact whatsoever, and leave nothing in the bucket.
Occasionally I had to take a break, when I would take the bulk of the money out of the bucket and leave maybe £4 in change in it. Now despite cars very obviously having come into the car park during my breaks - trade was brisk - the amount of money in the bucket climbed by no more that a couple of quid, indicating that people would generally chuck money into the pot while being watched, but not if there was no-one watching them.
At the end of the day I'd made about a substantial amount from the car park.
Next year's ideas will be a) to provide disabled parking, b) run a car wash in the car park, and c) to run a radio station - Old Sodbury Pirate FM - for the day.....
1 comment:
Bourdain has been in the public eye for around 20 years now, much more in the USA though. I reckon he'd be the kind of contrarian you'd warm to CB, some of his commentaries on politics and stardom have been both amusing and brutal in just the right proportion.
Post a Comment