Louisiana-Bound (2008)
Part 26 of 40: The Picnic Ends
Before the drawing for prizes ended, Mark Gasaway was called up to draw one of the winning numbers. Would he show up? I had my doubts because he was in a room in the very back of the hall. But I watched and sure enough he left his duties for 5 minutes to make a draw. Was the winner Mr. Morgan? Probably, I forget!
We can't assume that clowns have the life of a dog. Windy might, but Mr Ily Gasaway was busy about four hours entertaining young children. They came in bunches. He made balloons into pistols and swords and possibly other things. With very little space in the room he didn't know he had it good. Then he moved outside the small area into the large open floor area.
Never give a clown a big space. It is too dangerous! The kids loved Ily. They now had free access to him. They chased each other around as if it was Blackbeard and his Pirates against the British. Then the children of ages 4 to 14 maybe, concentrated on Ily. He was rubber stabbed, rubber shot, rubber beaten! The more balloons he fashioned into pretend weapons, the more he paid the price.
The stab wounds would have made Jack the ripper seem like an amateur. Those little kids must each have had bionic arms. They held onto the swords and delivered deadly pretend strokes at great speed. They stabbed and chopped at every part of Ily.
Sometimes he was still in his chair sprawled out. Often he was on the floor in some contorted position. He played their game and they loved him for it. When a balloon would burst, which was often, a kid dashed over to Ily for a new one. What a service Ily the Clown provided to the children! How valuable he was to the parents who could let them run freely, knowing they were safe.
Mark's caring qualities were evident to me. Yeah, I was observing him, sometimes from a distance and often up close. His actions pretty much summed up the character of Mark and Ily. I am sure he has great stories to tell. Maybe someday we will hear them.
A long day it was. Especially for the workers. I don't know many of their names, but I do know Yenter and Betty or Betty and Yenter, the order doesn't matter. Their names could be substituted for "Very Diligent Workers". I can see it. We are fortunate to have a male Yenter (very diligent worker) and a female Betty (very diligent worker) as SSP's.
There are other SSP's in the Lafayette area. I just got to observe those two more than the others. The SSP's provide a valuable services to the Louisiana Deafblind and possibly the blind too.
The afternoon was long past and early evening replaced it. The picnic was now over, however, the evening wasn't.
Written by
Harvey A. Bond
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Culture & Cooking + 
