For more than 30 years the children of Norman have flocked like the Swallows to Capistrano http://www.sanjuancapistrano.net/swallows/
or the Bats to Alabaster Caverns
http://www.showcaves.com/english/usa/caves/Selman.html
in search of one thing: The Sooner Fashion Mall.
Actually that's not quite right--although Safety Town is in the Sooner Fashion Mall Parking Lot.
To be quite frank, Sooner Fashion Mall is not even Sooner Fashion Mall anymore.
In the days of Disco, The BeeGees and the heyday of Kenny Rogers it was called Sooner Fashion Mall.
But now that we have instant messenger and shortened text messages are what we like we also shortenened the Mall of the Motherland to just Sooner Mall.
As if those in Sooner Country have so little fashion they cannot have a Mall with the word "fashion" in the title.
However, as the Sands of Time drift through the hourglass and the title of the Mall changes for no good reason, Safety Town remains the same.
This year is the 30th Anniversary of Safety Town
http://www.ci.norman.ok.us/police/safety_town.htm
and it serves to make our children safer by teaching them to ride bikes in a circle around wooden huts.
What is dangerous about wooden huts you ask?
An excellent question.
The wooden huts around safety town are supposed to be miniature versions of businesses in the town, but now serve mostly as sponsor advertising and are boarded up.
Ah, but 26 years ago when Laura and I and every other kid in Norman went to Safety Town we were allowed to play in the wooden huts.
The huts were the greatest!
They had splinters, spiders, rusty nails sticking out the sides, and best of all we had no helmets.
We could ride as fast as we dared around Safety Town and some of the huts were open on each end so we could take our bikes through the huts at high speed--which we did at every available opportunity.
Just imagine this scenario: my cousin Jordan (who was at the time a pedestrian at Safety Town) asks for a ride on the back of my bike.
I oblige.
After he is positioned securely by standing on the training wheels in the upright position and holding on to my shoulders I ask if he is ready to go.
He says yes.
I proceed to fly through Safety Town, running lights and whizzing in and out of pedestrians.
All is good until I take us through a wooden hut.
I hear Jordan yell and suddenly my bike is once again a one-man craft.
Turning around I see Jordan on the ground bleeding from the face and head area.
A Safety Town worker made us both sit out the rest of the day.
Fortunately for everyone in Norman, Safety Town now teaches kids how to be safe around wooden huts.
And wear helmets all the time, even when walking.
Shouldn't we just all take a lesson from Safety Town and wear helmets all the time?
I think we should.
Where are the pics of this Mythical Camelot of Safety?
Right here.
Andy McDonald drops off Jachin. Carson and Grandma Fran take stock of the situation.
Carson rounding turn 3 with a comfortable lead on the rest of the field.
And proceeds to turn 4....
Safety Town graduation.
The Little Red Schoolhouse and the Magical Safety Town Lamppost.
Legend has it if you rub the Lamppost you will never get any gray hairs when you get older.
Not really. Just the flash from my camera. (Really, it's Magic. Rub the Post.)
Carson takes the Safety Town Diploma. Now he is ready to face the dangerous world outside the fence.
This girl is biking with her eyes closed. Not Safe. Not ready for life outside the Fence.
Dad and C-Man.
Carson and Gma Jana.
2 comments:
Epic "safe" action. Perhaps it's good that your son is learning the habit of wearing a helmet at a young age. Only last year did I strap on a helmet for good and change from my lid-less and brash ways.
And look at Norman's infamous paper-delivering drifter, Calvin. He's always rolling out with the helmet, pedestrian though he is. It's even got frontal face protection, something a five year old J. Pinkerton did not have.
You all are wearing pants. It seems like such a strange dream to think back to wearing pants. It's so flipping humid here I couldn't imagine strapping on leg covering and humidity trapping cloth chutes...
Not safe outside the fence...I'll laugh about that for a few days.
But just think, a woman has to know how to drive with her eyes closed for short times. How else will she get her eye make-up on?
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