Hokey Pokey

A while ago, Frances, Johann and I went to Fry-fest. It's a little celebration of Hayden Fry, long-time head coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes.

The reason we went was because they were going to try to break the world record for most people doing the Hokey Pokey together (the previous record was something like 4,000 people).

Arial was really pregnant at the time, so she asked me to go alone with the external kids.

I knew that parking was going to be bad because on my bus ride home, I listened to the bus driver chatter about how the park and ride shuttles were packed. So, when the traffic started to get thick, I pulled off and parked in a motel parking lot. Others seemed to be doing the same.

The walk was pretty long, somewhere between a half mile and a mile. Johann and Frances did really well with it.

When we got to the festival, we could see a large field where the band was playing and a lot of people were standing. There was a long, long line of people. I couldn't tell really where it was going but after a little search, we found the end and took our chances by standing at the end.

That was a wise decision because it lead to the entrance of the "free" Hokey Pokey section (there was a concert later that night and if you had tickets you could get right in *and* be in front of the stage). The line moved rather quickly which was nice because we had arrived around the time they said they would start.

At the gate, they gave each of us a wrist band which I believe was how they were counting us (there were also a couple people with clickers but I doubt that is very accurate).

After attaching the wrist bands to each child, we were funneled off to the side. I was later told that they had to expand the "free" section because there was a bigger turnout than they thought (or maybe they had higher expectations for ticket sales).

We found a place at the fence which was actually next to the gate. That was interesting for me since I got to see the procedures being used to count people. When someone would leave, they had to cut the band off their wrist, presumably so they wouldn't be counted. There were Guinness people walking around presumably making sure everything was correct.

The kids weren't as entertained. I held them up to see the cheerleaders but that was about all the entertainment they had. They did well though. I guess a new experience was enough for them.

Finally, the buses stopped dumping people out and stragglers were encouraged to hurry. I don't recall if anyone was actually locked out but they closed the gates.

Some people spoke, including Hayden Fry (but we couldn't see the stage since we were off to the side). They did a warm up round of a few verses and then we did it for real.

The music started, we danced. Frances and Johann had fun. They did great at putting various body parts in.

The song ended, a cheer went up, then the music started again. I found out later that to get the record, we had to dance for 5 minutes, which was two play-throughs. I thought it was a celebratory dancing.

So, we danced again. It was a little harder to keep Johann interested but he stuck with it.

Then it was finished. We had broken the record with 7,000+ people dancing. So, now the Frances, Johann and I are part of a world record.


After the event, we went to look for cotton candy because Frances had seen some. I couldn't find any. We saw a lady whose kids had some. I tried to ask her where she got it but she was busy arguing with her child and I couldn't get her attention.

On the way back to the car I alternated carrying them. Johann declared he had to go to the bathroom.

I had one child wanting a treat and another needing to relieve himself. I thought that the McDonald's near by could solve all of our problems.

Unfortunately, that McDonald's had been torn down.

So we hurried home, used the bathroom and had ice cream.

mwz