Working At The Car Wash

Our 13-year-old daughter wil graduate from eighth grade this year. She attends a small parochial school, and this is a big deal for them with a graduation ceremony and a class party to follow. My wife is in charge of the party, which means she has to organize fundraisers to pay for it. The other Saturday they decided to hold a car wash at the school.

I donned some shorts and athletic shoes, ready to pitch in. I had no choice since my wife was in charge. Participation was mandatory for all the kids, but for their parents it was voluntary. My first job was to hang up signs near the street so that those in cars passing by would know what was going on. Early on there weren’t many kids, so they were all pressed into service to wash and dry cars.

Another parent gave me a hand-held sign and told me to hit the streets to drum up some business. I felt like one of those mascots for a tax service, only I wasn’t dressed like Uncle Sam or the Statue of Liberty. My sign said, “Class of 2011 Car Wash.” At first I wasn’t attracting any business until a young girl on the passenger side of a passing car yelled out, “Your sign is upside down!”

Throughout the day I was barraged with catcalls and whistles. I think my legs were getting the most attention although they were on a tanning scale of -7. One guy yelled out, “What, brah, you only graduating this year?” By the end of the day I was beat, although the kids made out pretty well moneywise. I guess I could get a sign-waving job come political season – if you want to lose, that is!

Ron’s WEBSITE of the week

Our ever-popular food columnist Jo McGarry wrote in about another passion of hers – public education. She’s heavily involved with the Hawai’i Education Matters organization. Its site went live last week and is chock-full of information about public schools in Hawaii: hawaiieducationmatters.org