Select?

If the Hampton Inn isn’t a window into America…I don’t know what is.

Thursday night in Marlborough Mass, two groups of pee-wee hockey teams were in the lobby trying to check in. 45 little guys running around the Hampton Inn with hockey sticks that were easily a foot taller than they were. Then they were each dragging coffin-sized roller-bags of gear behind them. Something about a 53 lb little guy toting 93 lbs of expensive gear that just screams “Jonbenet” to me…but I digress.

And since they are staying at a hotel before a tournament…this is obviously a “select” traveling team. How do you get to be a “select” hockey player at 7 years old??? In kindergarten, you excelled at coloring and monkey bars?? I may be mistaken, but I think when I was 7 years old, I was “select” at not wetting the bed (well, mostly). [These kids better be careful or they are going to end up as “elites”.]

How much fun can it be to chaperone 45 seven year old boys? These skinny little Capri-wearing moms and their ex-hockey playing husbands were frantically trying to count this swarm of boys…ummm, good luck with that. How many times can one harried mother say “boys, c’mere…boys, over here…over here boys”. Yeahhhh…is it okay if I DON’T hold the elevator for you guys? And in a scene that just about captured it all…one of the fathers is sheepishly pushing a luggage cart through the lobby loaded down with one twelve-pack of sprite, a case of bud light and two cases of Smirnoff Raspberry Ice. And you know it’s not the fathers that are drinking that Smirnoff Ice.