The Other Half

The Other Half

Ever since my children were very young, my wife and I would treat them to all kinds of events, because we wanted to expose them to a variety of cultural things in life.  After all the saying is that man does not live by bread alone (and that applies to little children).  Early exposure to some of the varieties of entertainment included some things that they wanted and some that we felt they had to have.

Some examples of our choices (mom and dad) were: P.T. Barnum and Bailey Circus, the Nutcracker, Disney On Ice, The Seattle Art Museum (SAM), and Seattle EMP Museum.  Some examples of their own favorites: Concerts (NSYNC, Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, O-Town, Mandy Moore), also Wrestle Mania, The Main Event, Seahawks, Mariners, Disney Land, Universal Studios, Wax Museum, and Knott’s Berry Farm to mention a few.

Growing up my father treated me to Disney Land, Knott’s Berry Farm, Spanish music concerts, Beach Boys, Boxing Matches, and Wrestling Matches, later on in life my wife and I attended some Julio Iglesias concerts, and we also treated my mother to some champagne music concerts.  You get the idea.  I don’t believe in just staying in front of the television set (boob tube).  Before my wife and I married I also attended some big star performances in Las Vegas.

I had to start this post with the above disclosure in order to set up the story of something special that one of my sons and his wife did for me this weekend.  I received a call a week earlier from the third oldest son of four sons.  He invited me to a NFL football game with my favorite team against the Minnesota Vikings.  My wife had other plans so it was up to me to invite two other guests.  I chose my youngest daughter and her husband.  We were going to be seated in Box level seats, and enjoy the game from under shelter, but still exposed to the high thirties and low forties temperatures.

View From Above

Before the game even started, my son was talking to a person that his business does business with, and we were given an invitation to join them in their suite (accommodates 24 people).  This post is about how the other half lives.  Totally unbelievable, The suite has its own restroom for the occupants, a well-stocked refrigerator with variety of beer, wine, and soft drinks, food that was constantly replenish and constant variety of new food items (meatballs, salads, baked potatoes, pizza, chicken salad, chips, etc.). None of the mentioned items cost the occupants a dime.  The worldwide corporation paid for everything.  I would definitely be surrounded with friends if I could offer those type of perks.

The other people in the suite, were wonderful and friendly, and I imagine most of them were guests like us.  I could get used to watching my favorite team from that level of luxury.  Later in the day I heard my son comment to a friend who thought it was great that he was at a game with me (his father).  My son commented that he was treating me as payback for taking him to his to his first NFL game at the Seattle Kingdome.   So you see our investment in our kids can and often will pay off. If nothing else it will begin to train them to expect the better things in life, and get them to strive to reach higher.  The best is yet to come…….