Over the last few weeks, we have been to a couple of outdoor concerts at our local town centre. Now when I say town centre, it’s a bit like Orbital district centre in North Swindon, with lots of shops, a big supermarket, some restaurants, bank and a big hotel. There is also a big car park that they transform into a stage area and set up stalls with free food. Talking of car parks, have you noticed in the UK how small the parking spaces are? I always struggle to get in and out of the doors without hitting the car parked next to me and from personal experience, as well as the chipped paintwork on previous car doors to prove it; other people struggle to do the same! Well over here the car parking spaces are huge! Probably to accommodate their huge SUV and pick-up trucks, or it may be that they have so much space that we might as well make things more spacey like, or it could be to help rather large people get in and out of their vehicles without squishing themselves, and we all know how large some of the people here can get! Either way, I like the fact you can get out of your car without breaking them!
Now, as I was saying, I don’t know about you, but I can’t imagine that North Swindon council providing 600 free hot dogs, free popcorn, free crisps and drinks for the evening as well as free ice cream and live entertainment. I know we have the bowl at the Town Gardens, but it’s not the same.
Let’s compare the two. First imagine a sunny summer afternoon (well at least twice a year) with a few groups playing music, lots of blokes drinking cider and beer, throwing peanuts (paid for) at each other, shouting lewd remarks at the girls who are sporting tight shorts, with short tops with plenty of overhanging flash, sitting with the obligatory baby in a buggy and piles of empty cans and rubbish strewn around left for someone to pick up at some point over the following couple of weeks.
Now compare this to a hastily arranged stage complete with sound system, lighting with guys monitoring tables of monitors and other music gear (sorry I’m not technical with this stuff), police directing traffic, fire engine waiting for any problems with potentially lethal exploding popcorn, as well as the many people begging you to take all of the free food supplies so as not to waste anything. Then you have people, who turn up with their chairs and blankets, cool boxes of beer and wine, calmly staking a spot for themselves and their kids, chatting to all and sundry! The kids go off running about with friends in little possees even though its pitch black, while the adults singing along and with some doing very strange dance movements (chicken song springs to mind!). When the music stops, everything is cleared away and before you know it, you’d never have known that anything other than a car park had ever been there. There are even portable loos and free standing hand washing machines dotted around to stop the spread of germs.
I’ll let you guess which one is where, but the one we went to seemed to be really well planned and geared up for the family and made us feel contented to just sit, relax and while away the hours without a care in the world!
This month’s observation being that some things in the States are bigger and better organized with family in mind compared to the UK.
