The Great Shoe Debacle

[Trina]

As requested by our resident Catlady, here are all the gory details.

Friday afternoon was the celebration marking the end of the PTA 
fundraiser for this year.  It started at 12:30 pm and the kids who 
had sold the most stuff got to go out earliest (12:30) and then in 
staggered times the others would go out in order of how much stuff 
they sold and at 2:00 everyone was out there.  There were lot of 
little games like ring toss, bean bag toss, etc.  There was also a 
dunking booth (I never saw this as I was too busy with the ring toss) 
and, most crucial to this tale, a giant inflatable slide like you 
would see at the county fair.

In order to go down the slide, the kids had to take off their shoes. 
Some of the Kindergarten classes had the forsight to have the kids 
leave their shoes in the classroom.  If only the others did as well.  
At 2:20, when it was time to get the kids to get ready to go in 
(which with 600+ kids, is rather like herding cats) they had to first 
find their shoes.  I had at least 5 kids come up to me and say, "I 
can't find my shoes."  We dismiss the K & 1st grades at 2:30 to go to 
the bus lines and early bus leaves at 2:35 so time was really of the 
essence.  At the end of the day we had 4 pair of shoes left unclaimed 
and 4 children who were shoeless.  One 3rd grader found a pair of 
shoes that looked like his but were too small.  Evidently a younger 
kid grabbed the wrong size shoes.  

There were also a multitude of jackets left out on the playground, 
nicely covered in dirt and dry grass.  I picked a bunch of them up to 
take in to the lost and found.  When I dropped them off, I looked as 
though I had wallowed in dirt and dry grass myself.  As I was getting 
ready to leave, I heard an all-call for the principal who had a phone 
call.  Hmm, I wonder what that *possibly* been about?

In short, it was sheer bedlam.  I hope they don't do this again!

Trina