The kids had to be at school to get lined up by 5:15. Commencement started at 6:00. We didn't hardly get set down til DARK CLOUDS began rolling in. Can you say...BACK UP PLAN! Who doesn't plan a backup plan when you are having an outdoor event in May. I bet we hadn't been sitting 10 minutes until we began to hear THUNDER. The sky began to darken and still we all sat there. Did I mention the twins graduating class is between 350 and 400 students. Thus, LOTS of people were there!As it began to sprinkle and then RAIN...yes rain...EVERYONE kept waiting for someone to come to the stage and announce SOMETHING...cancel, postpone, move to another venue...something.
I kid you not...every parent, grandparent, and guest sat in the POURING RAIN until 5 minutes til 6:00. 5 MINUTES BEFORE IT WAS ABOUT TO START I TELL YOU! These crazy people even sent the chorus kids out to the METAL bleachers to sing in the pouring rain and thunder. The poor girls were all carrying umbrellas and screaming as only girls can do every time the wind/rain would blow. They were COMPLETELY DRENCHED in five minutes. Right before they were about to sing a teacher FINALLY dismissed everyone and told them to go back to the gym. Some of the kids starting screaming to their parents in the stands...."They just postponed commencement until 7:00". Can you even believe this. Now what! people had been there since before 5:00 just to get good seats and have those video cameras just perfect for this ONCE IN A LIFETIME EVENT!! Here are a few pictures of us sitting in the rain.
Grandpa and Grandma in the RAIN!
Me and Mom huddling under our umbrellas
Did I mention that some people didn't even have an umbrella! This poor family a few rows in front of us looked like drown rats in their Sunday best clothes. I kid you not...you would have thought they had just jumped out of a swimming pool. This poor grandpa in front of me barely had his head under his family's HUGH golf umbrella in front of him. You should of seen the water pouring off that umbrella onto his BACK and down his shirt. All we could do was laugh.
Moving right along....its now a couple of minutes before graduation is suppose to START and suddenly across the loud speaker we hear..."Graduation has now been moved to the gym. Please precede that way". John and I looked at each other and at the same time said ARE YOU KIDDING ME!
Everyone immediately began moving as quickly as possible to the gym....still in the POURING RAIN I must add. Can you say TOTAL KAYOS (not sure if that is spelled right but you get the picture). Never have I ever seen such a mess. Everyone was WET TO THE BONE and were told to cram into a hot gym with no chairs and no organization whatsoever. People were hanging from the railings it was so crowded. People were standing in the middle of the gym floor just trying to get out of the rain outside. Police began TRYING to clear an emergency exit to the doors but people had no where to go. The principal finally got on the speaker and asked everyone to "squeeze" as far to one side of the gym as possible so they could pull out the bottom bleachers so the seniors could march in and set down. The ONLY good thing about this mess was that the graduates had been lined up in the gym the entire time waiting to march onto the field so they were the ONLY ONES DRY!!!
Because so many people were standing on the floor no one could really see anything...except those pressed right up next to the seniors on the floor. John finally pushed his way to the front of the crowd the whole time saying "Excuse me, can I get through to take pictures of my kids on the FRONT ROW....we can't see them from the back of the gym!!!!!" Basically, John was the only one in our family who saw anything. People were talking the entire time and you BARELY heard the students name being called out to recieve their diploma. Here are a few pictures of the TOTAL KAYOS!
to be continued....
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