Basketball Night

Last week we had a family night. After work we ate out at a fancy fast food restaurant. We then went to the local high school gymnasium to cheer on the boys basketball team. Number One Son had his play practice at the high school too, so he missed the first half of the game. Sweet Pea missed most of the game too even though she was present for entire game.

As soon as we sat down in the bleachers, Sweet Pea said she was hungry. Mind you, we just came from eating supper. She would have to wait for her popcorn. Well, then she was tired, and then hot and then thirsty and then hungry again. And then she was, "Soooo bored with this." Then the game started.

"Here's a dollar. Go get some popcorn.", I said. And then hastily added, "And bring back the change."

She came back with her popcorn, eating it as she walked. She kept spilling it on her way up the clumsy bleachers but it didn't stop her from feeding herself on the way. She sat down and I asked, "Where's my change?"

"I don't know.", she shrugged. And then ate a handful of popcorn.

"Well, how much was popcorn?", I pressed.

"I don't know." Another shrug, another handful.

I now had a decision to make. Do I go to the concession stand and ask for the price of popcorn, and then ask if they knew of a little girl who got ripped off a few minutes ago? I decided I was too lazy to do that. We found out later that popcorn actually was $1. Now who got ripped off? I can remember when high school basketball game popcorn was ten cents. We usually had to ride in covered wagons, battling dinosaurs on the way to the game in our day, but the popcorn was at least affordable.

Number One Son arrived at half time from his play practice. He was thirsty too so we sent him to the concession stand with a couple dollars to get two bottles of water for him and his sister. He came back later with nothing and said, "I didn't have enough money for two bottles."

"What!" I could feel an increasing ache in my wallet area. We told him to go back and get one to share then. He then came back with a bottle of Gatorade. He said that Gatorade and water were both $1.75 so he got Gatorade.

I can't fault his logic but since when did water cost as much as Gatorade?

I wanted the game to be a teaching opportunity for the kids to learn more about the game of basketball. We mostly had a lesson in economics and inflation. And the kids learned how cheap their dad is.

Well, we stayed until the end of the game and unfortunately our team came up a little short. It was a close exciting game so I believe we got our money's worth.

At least that is what I'm telling myself.