Today July 8th, 2000 - Harry Potter Day

[p_dumbledore]

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No: HPFGUIDX C3598
From: p_dumbledore
Subject: Today July 8th, 2000 -  Harry Potter Day
Date: 7/8/00 5:28 pm  (ET)

Whew!! What a grabber of a first chapter..

Helped out at the local book store, for a small book store out in the
boonies of Oregon, there was good crowd.

One gentleman had an old broom making machine and was constructing hand
made brooms.. they were selling well. Very nice models with mahogany
handles, gold lettering, and I'm sure could probably turn on a dime and
give back 5 pence!

One boy and his sister came as Ron and Hermione, he was a brown
haired young teen who had bleached his hair and had it dyed an almost
flourescent red color.. he wore wizarding hat and robes. His sister
carried a stack of books on wizardry and muggle history. Most employees
wore robes as they swished around the store. A Quidditch match was played
with bats, brooms(as hocky sticks) and an occasional Snitch was thrown
into the game. The winner if someone caught the snitch before it hit
the ground. The winning team received same small owls as gifts.

We brought our Hedwig with us in his cage (modified to allow a hand to
control his head in the cage.)

There was some concern as the quantity of HP4 books was being depleted
faster than was anticipated. I would say that of those comming into the
store 50% or more were adults WITHOUT children. The quickly grabbed their
copies of the book and scurried out of the shop. I wasn't quite sure
if this was to get quickly to a warm comfortable spot to begin reading
or to avoid being identified as one of those adult readers that the NY
Times dosen't seem to recognize as readers of HP4.

As the wife and I returned home from "the city" back to our small
Burrow and alotment in the country she read aloud the first and second
chapters. Can't wait to steal the book away from her when she finishes.