Tales From The Circ Side
A Totally Tubular Touch A Truck Turnout
Yesterday was the culmination of our local library's summer reading special events. Earlier this year when Miss Margaret mentioned that we were going to have a Touch A Truck event as our last shindig, I was pleased, for the last time we did such a thing it was a success. There were a couple of pieces of equipment on the library's lawn and equipment themed crafts galore. Pieces of cake!
Well, a couple of months ago she dropped the little news bomb that we were teaming up with the local police department and doing the Touch A Truck event together. Before the month was out there was a concrete truck, front end loader, and fire truck on the list. Next came the SWAT team from a neighboring town and finally a K9 demonstration was added to the line up. Things were definitely starting to get interesting on the planning front.
Finally, the day arrived. All of us librarians were a little nervous as we waited anxiously for all the equipment to arrive. Our library is located next to an elementary school, and our police department managed to acquire the school's field and parking lot for us to use, for we needed some serious room for the event. Before long the Bookmobile rolled in, and we all busied ourselves setting up tables in front of the rolling library full of free books to give away to attendees. I had brought the interns (my kids) to help out, as did my manager, and before long we had a nice setup full of books and popsicles to give to people who showed up.
As we were setting up on the field, it soon became apparent that we weren't going to be alone long, for soon there was an ambulance next to our Bookmobile, and a firetruck across from us. The smell of freshly popped popcorn soon wafted into our nostrils as the local PD has brought their popcorn machine and were busily filling small bags to give away too.
People began wandering onto the field and we began dispersing our free swag. My son was super useful as the popsicle dissemination engineer. He spent two hours cutting the top off of Otter pops and giving them to small frys. My daughter and the other teen girl interns manned the tables and gave away all manner of free books from board books to YA novels.
My job, I have to say, was a fun one. As the unofficial, official archiver of the library, I got to peruse all the things and take pictures of the entire spectacle. When the SWAT team people rolled onto the field in their re-purposed MRAP I snapped pictures of awestruck little ones and older folks alike.
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The greatest thing about our event was the touching the trucks part. Parents snapped pictures galore of their young ones crawling onto and climbing through everything. There were kids in the front end loader bucket, kids in the police SUV, kids in the dump bed of the dump truck, kids at the controls of a backhoe, and kids poking their heads out of the top of the MRAP.
Oh, and soon there was a soundtrack as the kiddos found that all the vehicles had horns. And sirens. The school field soon became enveloped in a cacophony of honks and siren shriesks. All to the giggling delight of the attendees.
Halfway through the event we also go to witness a K9 demonstration. Duco, the Post Falls Police Department Belgian Malinois officer put on an impressive evidence recovery demonstration. A couple hundred people watched in enraptured awe as the athletic and well trained beast found a set of keys that were tossed out onto the field.
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Later, as the event died down, the best part of the day happened. It was time for the librarians to play with the trucks. Let's just say that multiple awesome pictures were taken of us big kids as we crawled all over the equipment. I fully admit to being a complete infant when it comes to machinery, as I grew up around all manner of large equipment. Plus, I am always going to be a bit of a big wonderstruck kid, and I kind of like that fact.
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Later, as we hauled all of our event detritus back to the library, we reflected on just how much of a success the Touch A Truck thing was. Before it was even over our local PD cornered us and said that they were so ready to do the event again with us next year. Of course we were on board, the whole point of the library is to help people discover new things, and I must admit I felt a little bit of an internal squee when our police chief blurted,
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Fire truck is most important vehicles .
Your news is very important .
Thanks for sharing @generikat
Fire trucks are super important, I totally agree! And they are fascinating to look at too:)
Ooooh, a helicopter?! I will make sure I show up for that!
I know! Right! I so cannot wait for that:)
Awww that is so totally cool! Certainly sounds like a good time was had by all. Oh and I agree with you, I never want to grow up! ;)
Yay OGP!
Also, I might have broken into the ToysRUs song as I finished reading your post, LOL!
Your cops hand out popcorn? Mine only hand out tickets. Life sure is different on opposite sides of the country.
Glad your event went well. Who doesn't like playing on the big toys?
Our local cops are pretty nice. Quite a few years ago I worked at our local grocery store, and we'd close late at night. Every night an officer would be sitting there in the parking lot looking out for us as we walked across the parking lot to our cars. And I can't even describe how many times they have helped us out of a social jam at the library. LOL!
Sometimes I catch myself perking up like a happy-go-lucky cocker spaniel when I see some new and large toy to play with and giggle at myself, but I kind of like being that way if I am honest. Tomorrow I get to go pick blueberries at the butt crack of dawn, I'm sure a battle of some form of thrown fruit will commence;)
Hope you are having a pleasant weekend! Right now I am overseeing 4-H project book completion. My heathens are in full this is just like school groaning and moaning mode. Ha ha!
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So in the end everything turned out to be better than what they expected to have popcorn, I think my favorite was the police car and the fireman had never seen one inside he did not know that they kept many things in the
I loved seeing all of the stuff in the fire truck too! The ambulance had even more gear if you can believe it! It was just so cool to look through everything, and I am glad you enjoyed glancing at it too:)
Like the idea and looks like a great time. I just get taken back when I see police vehicles that look like they belong in a war zone.
It really was a blast, but I totally get what you're saying about re-purposed military vehicles, of course, all I can think when I see one is how I would like to float it across a river or take it through some really deep mud, LOL!
Hello @generikat how are you? I see that this was a great demonstration, I'm very involved in that truck, they have a lot of things stored on the side of the, I like that fire truck
It was quite a show that I graduated that everything went so well and your son also saw that it was very helpful
Hi @andrina! I am doing fantastic, and I hope you are too?
I loved looking at all the stuff in the firetruck! Well, I loved it all, it was such a great time, including the fact that my kids were so helpful. They are most of the time though, lol! Hope you have a lovely weekend!
Very fun. Wish I could have been there to play on the trucks. Weren’t they made for kids to play on? ❤️🐓🐓
Weapons of war don't belong on our streets. It's time for a Bearcat Buyback!