Sunday, July 11, 2010

It's just us in the clown car.

Yesterday we traveled to a larger town to do some shopping.  We needed to hit a thrift store, Aldi's, JoAnn's fabric, and some other places our small town doesn't have.

We'd been there for several hours when the children started to complain that their water bottles were getting low, and were warm.  We'd spent some time playing in a park and they were all hot and thirsty.  Steve spotted an Arby's and asked me if I wanted a jamocha shake.  I told him I would enjoy one, but could also live without it.

He pulled into the drive through and asked me how many ice waters we needed.  We debated over 6 or 8 and our 13 year old quickly responded that we needed 9 ice waters ... one for each person.

So Steve ordered one jamocha shake, and 9 ice waters.

At that point the cashier asked, "Nine?!?!"

Steve responded, "Yes, nine."

They charged us for the jamocha shake and told us to pull around.  We did, and as the cashier reached out to take our money, he said, "I half expected to see a clown car  pull up."

We laughed and replied, "No, just a full Suburban."

At that point, he started handing out the water cups, one at a time.  He counted as he handed them to Steve.  Steve handed them to me.  I passed them back to 13 yo R who distributed them to the kids.  As he counted and the cup relay was underway, other Arby's workers gathered around and grinned at the spectacle.

I guess they don't hand out 9 water cups at the drive-through very often.  I'm just thankful they were so good-natured about it.  They didn't limit us to only 3.  They didn't charge us for them.  They weren't rude.

They were just fascinated, and amused.  I can live with that.

In the meantime ... it's just our little family ... in the clown car.

April E.