Thursday, July 26, 2007

Toys for Tots, Pt. 2

With all the various moving parts of OPERATION: ASSHOLES TAKING ADVANTAGE, there was a few pick-ups that got overlooked. It came to the attention of the First Sergeant, and he made sure that we were aware of the error, in classic Staff NCO fashion. I declined to mention that he might not recognize me due to the fact that I was just helping out and not in his chain of command, but I did kind of like my butt sans boot. I'm kind of funny that way. So a bunch of us piled into a couple of vans and off we went...

To a local fire department. One of the stations in town had agreed to host a couple of collection boxes for the past few months, and it sounded like they had quite the haul. As best as I could figure out, they had combined forces with a couple of other organizations to maximize their potential. Good stuff. I guess one of the fire fighters had a couple of daughters in the girl scouts, and they also decided to pitch in and help out. One of those mothers worked for a newspaper, and they figured...not to help out, but to come and take some pictures for a story.

Fire fighters. Good people. Actually a couple of former Marines in the bunch, and we managed to swap some stories and talk some trash before the festivities began. Before anyone could get into too much trouble, the girl scouts and (mostly) mom's showed up. I don't remember the exact words from the conversation, but I had a great conversation with one of the little girls. She was very proud of her various patches, and asked if I would like a few for my uniform. I declined as politely as I could. My arm was twisted on those delicious mint-chocolate chip cookies, however (cookies gooood).

Eventually, it came time for the photo op. The firefighters, along with the girl scout group made the official presentation of the toys to the gathered Marines. A photographer from the paper took a few shots, took down a few names, and some background story. As we were breaking up, one of the moms asked if she could take a pic with her personal camera. No problem, we were happy to be accommodating.

Now, I don't know if it was something in the air, the uniforms, or something else, but it seemed like every mom suddenly had a camera and a semi-professional interest in taking the best shots. At first I thought it was just the typical proud mama thing, but after a few comments I began to wonder. A couple of the mothers made comments to their daughters along the lines of 'now girls, y'all will want to save these pictures, in a couple of years they'll mean a lot more to yall', 'ok, suzy one photo for you, 5 for me', and 'Mmmmm...*licking lips a la Stiffler's mom*'. Ok, ok, I might have made that last one up, at least the 'Mmmmm' part. I did see one licking her lips, but in her defense, it might have been the cookies... or something. As the pictures continued (with commentary), one of the Marines whispered to the fire fighter next to him 'Dude... you get this all the time?' 'On occasion', was the response.' The Marine very quickly developed an interest in joining a fire department upon his exit from the Corps.

3 comments:

JL said...

Chicks do so love the uniforms.

One of the perks of the job. You think that was something. Try showing up to a loud hotel room where they are having a bachelorette party. I barely escaped with my pants still on.

Murphy said...

BWAHAHahaha!!!

I bet explaining how you got restrained with your own cuffs took some 'splainin', though!

Anonymous said...

Gentlemen, Gentlemen, Gentlemen!!!

You do Team Women a great disservice, you know, by insinuating we are so shallow as to be overly interested in....hold on, now...did you say uniforms?...UNIFORMS?...as in...freshly-laundered...pressed...sharp creases...shiny buttons...insignias...oooh, gotta have LOTS of insignias...kind of uniforms?...OH, MY!!!...just a sec...what was the topic? Toys? No. Marines? No. Women? No. The economy? Nope.

Never mind, sir. It's time for my nap, I think. Also, ice. Lots and lots of ice.

Veritas et Fidelis Semper