The Ballgame

My grand Ana is a cheerleader for the Pee Wee Football team, the Saints. She's cheered for 3 years now and loves it.

I enjoy going to the games and watching her do her thing. I also enjoy sitting at the sweet table, where various mom's bring baked goods to sale, to raise extra money for the girls and their various needs.

I also enjoy watching people at these events, and even interacting with them, although some of them can be a pain.

When we arrived Saturday morning, the head sponsor drove up right behind me. Seems we didn't have anyone to work the gate, where we charge 1.00 a head for all who are football players or cheerleaders. Sponsors, coachs and refs get in free too. Melissa took the sweet table, set it up and put Ana in charge of that since she didn't cheer until 12:45, and it was only 9:00, she put me at the gate.

Normally there is a young girl, around the age of 12 working the gate. She lets some slide by without paying, I'm sure. Possibly due to her age, she's reluctant to stop an adult and insist that they pay.

Such was the case with the family of 4, bringing their daughter to cheer. As they proceeded past the table, I spoke up to say: "There's a 1.00 a head charge to get in."

The lady said she had never paid to get in before.
"Yep," I said, "I'm sure you haven't. There's been a youngster working the gate and they don't always catch everyone."

"I paid 85.00 to sign her up to cheer, I shouldn't have to pay to get in." Mom retorted.

"I paid the same 85.00, I pay to get in, and besides that, I give my time to work the gate and the sweet table. It's a 1.00 a head to get in."

"What do they do with the money?" mom wanted to know.

"It's used to fund the extra expenses of the league. Turning on lights for practice, buying refreshments for them after a game, paying for the trophies they get at the end of the season, and various other expenses." I explained.

They coughed up the 3.00 and went on in.

The deputy standing nearby making sure people didn't block the drive shook his head and wondered why people were the way they were.

Later on I watched a young mother get really angry with her 2 year old who wanted the food she had bought for herself. The baby was just toddling around and mom handed her the bowl of fritos and chilli and threatened to beat her butt if she dropped it. There was a younger baby reaching for the bowl and I just knew she would cause the older child to drop it, but thankfully mom rescued it before that happened.

People are so interesting to me. I could watch them for hours.....or listen to them.

Later that evening a sister to the sponsor came up to watch her son play ball. Now J has had some problems through the years, has lost a child and life doesn't always go right for her. But life doesn't always go right for any of us.
She stood right next to me, talking on her cell phone and said, "I get mine the 3rd and I can fix you up with plenty then, along with some pain pills." She said some other things but I failed to catch that, then she walked away.

Her sister said, "It's so embarrassing. She was just standing there talking about dealing drugs where you could hear it."
"Yep," I replied, "for all she knew I was a narc agent."

Like I said, folks are just so interesting.