Grange Hall Days…

As I was walking this morning, I found myself pondering a few of our previous daily prompts, one of which was the one regarding fears.  For whatever reason, my mind wound up remembering a fear I had as a child that was a very well-founded fear, thanks to the grown ups of the time.  This story is a shout out for all of the others out there who were scarred along with me… this is for you my fellow comrades in the old school vaccine lines…

How many people here remember being marched into your local grange hall, to await your annual vaccines.  Remember the walls lined with folding chairs that began at the door and went all the way around the hall to the closed door at the other end? 

We were forced in the doorway by unhappy parents, who had to sit with us for the entire waiting process, lying to us the entire time, saying “It’s not that bad, it won’t hurt, it will be over before you know it, and you get a sucker when it’s over”.  There we had to sit for at least 2 hours, moving forward one chair at a time, slowly, always watching the door with the frosted glass that did not allow you to see more than an ominous shadow on the other side. 

We had to watch the kids closest to the doorway get more and more frightened, and slowly starting to cry.  We watched as the door opened, a hiccupping teary-eyed boy or girl would exit with a stupid sucker in their hand, and then watch the child by the door completely loose it and claw for the exit, only to be drug into the scary room screaming NOOOO… Then the door would close, it would get loud, then quiet, then really loud, and then they would exit with that stupid sucker, and we would all advance one seat closer…

Ya……….. whose ridiculous idea was that???  I am certain that it played a large roll in my fear of needles, to this day!  Sooooo… for all of you that were there… this will make you feel a little better…

I think there should be a special kind of retribution for us test subjects, I mean kids.  For those that took part in putting us through this very dysfunctional process, I think it would only be fitting if they were asked to sit in one of those chairs by the door.  But they have to give their banking information to the attendant who takes it to that silly room. 

Now, they have to sit for the next several hours watching all of us in line in front of them, and here is the fun part…  Instead of people crying when they enter that room, they will wave and smile as they shut the door behind them.  They are for sure laughing when they are in there, and when they come out, they smile and wave as they leave… no way to have any idea how much they spend of that money until the perp (nightmare maker) gets to the room… but they must look on the bright side, there will be a whole bag of stupid suckers for them to make it all better…

I am so nice, though, cause I only have cookies in my lobby and they are only for us!