Mississippi Experiences 3

Day Three in Mississippi started out with an early morning phone call from our installer, Mark. He was on the road, headed towards Waveland and wanted to make sure everything was ready. He asked me if I had gotten the 1x8 pressure treated wood blocks needed for the project "Oh #%!*! I will get them! I can't believe I dropped the ball on that!" So I head out to find the wood. Not your standard size board and I'm praying that I can find someone to cut them so I can fit them in my rental car. As I am leaving, Jim Dawson, the Gametime distributor and Mark's boss calls to tell me that Mark's truck broke down outside of Mobile so they were sending two other trucks, one for him and one to tow the other truck back to their base of operations in Fort Payne Alabama. GREAT.... anything else Murphy is going to toss my way? I head out in search of this special lumbar in a town that is slightly short on just about anything related to building! My first stop is Lumber 84... lots of customers, but no 1x8 boards or the alternative 3/4" plywood. Next stop Home Depot... LOOOOTTS of customers, and just a few folks with their trademark orange aprons. Everybody is very short on staff. I search and search to no avail. Finally, I snag an employee and stick to him like glue. "No Ma'am, we do not have pressure treated 1x8 but we do have 3/4" plywood" Yea! "Can you cut it for me?" I ask. "No Ma'am, our saw is down and we don't have any equipment to cut it." So I tell them that I'm building a playground for Waveland Elementary and need the boards for the project. I ask if they know of another store that might carry the 1x8's and they actually give me phone numbers of another Home Depot and a Lowe's! Gotta love it! It's Macy's Santa all over! I call them both with no luck. I am so stressed, so I call Mark, who is stuck on the side of the road waiting for the replacement truck and tell him I am having a bear of a time finding the boards. He tells me that he remembered that he had several boards on his truck. Remind me to give him a noogie when I see him! I can breathe now so I head out in search of food. I come upon a fast food restaurant and can't really tell what they sell. I get inside and discover it's fried chicken which I have not eaten in several years.... waaayy too much fat and grease.... yuck! I have to suck it up though because the pickin's are slim and I need to get out to the school. So I order the smallest thing they have and manage to choke down 1 1/2 chicken fingers while ignoring the grease slick building in my mouth! Eventually I give up and start for Waveland. Once I get there, I head out to uncrate and unwrap the equipment with the help of 3 energetic college kids from Wisconsin. They make very quick work of the effort and have the small crate done in 45 minutes, start breaking down the side of the large crate and then have to go. I am hopping around in excitement like a kid on Christmas morning at the vivid beautiful colors! Mark Boston, my volunteer coordinator from Commander Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command arrives to help me out. It is great to meet Mark, as I have only dealt with him via email and phone calls. We jump to it and Mark the installer plus his boss, Gametime Distributor, Jim Dawson show up. They go right to work laying out the lot and drilling the holes. Mark Boston and I get done with the equipment and I tell Mark & Jim I am going to check on the hotel rooms I reserved for them at the Ramada Limited on Beach Blvd. Last month when I saw that Ramada Limited had rooms listed online at a hotel on Beach Blvd, I was skeptical so I called their 1-800 number and asked if there was really a hotel... the answer.... "Yes ma'am, would you like to make a reservation?" The reservation agent told me I would have to call the property directly and give them my credit card to pay for the room. So I called several times and got nothing but a busy signal. I figured that I would just go by the hotel when I was in Gulfport and take care of it directly. Well, I turn onto Beach Blvd and get to the 900 block where the hotel is supposed to be.... no hotel, no structure, nothing but a small pile of rubble. I think, well sometimes hotels will actually be a block back but have a sidewalk leading up to Beach Blvd so that they can list that as an address, so I circle back a block and begin driving on the parallel street. Pretty quickly I realize that this is a residential area and there is not going to be a Ramada Limited. Up ahead I spy a couple in a pickup truck with Mississippi plates and a construction sign on the side. I decide to pull up next to them and ask. The woman replied "Aw Honey, there is no Ramaaada Limited! It got washed up in the storm!". Oh #%!*! I am so screwed! Panic stricken, I reply "But I have a confirmation number!" Turns out this lady, Teresa, is the assistant manager at the Holiday Inn up the street and it is open and has rooms! Her husband turns the truck around and they lead me to the hotel. She sends me inside to ask for Debi the manager to tell her my tale. I walk in and tell Debi in the makeshift office on the 2nd floor of the hotel that I ran into Teresa on the street. All of the hotel staff bust out laughing and Debi says "Let me guess, you had a reservation at the Ramada Limited!" YES... they tell me that they are getting several people in a day in the same boat. DAMN Ramada Limited! This could be a very, very bad situation for some folks who have no other recourse. I pour out my tale of building a playground and needing a place to stay for my installers and Debi and another woman pipe up and say "Hey, I read about you in the Sun Herald last week!". "Yes, that's me!" I reply as I whip out the newspaper article folded up in my purse! So Debi gives me a break on the room and begins asking me about how I came to do this. By the time I left several of them were in tears and giving me hugs of thanks! You just never know who or how you are going to touch people along the way. When I left Teresa in front of the hotel, she told me that I have know idea of how much this playground will mean to the whole town of Waveland and all along the Gulf Coast. So many people are promising things and not delivering that they are afraid to hope for anything grand... "this is grand" she says "and that just one person made this happen for our children just touches our soul". I tell her that I had a lot of help and that things like running into her is proof that I have an angel on my shoulder.
With the hotel situation resolved, I head back to my friend Randy's in Biloxi. First I stop at the grocery store to pick up something healthy to fix for dinner. I still need to get the slick of fried chicken out of my mouth! After a nice home cooked meal, Randy and I sit and talk like only old friends can. I went to high school with Randy in Japan back in the mid-70's. We lost touch for about 20 years but we are closer than ever now. He is one of those people you know you can count on when the chips are down to be supportive, warm, and loving just when you need it. I think I am really lucky to know him. Just as I am nagging Randy about his dietary choices (he doesn't have a wife... I feel an obligation!), my phone rings. It is the XO from the CNMOC Professional Development Center (PDC), he tells me that he talked to the XO of the Seabee unit and they are sending over a front end loader and two Seabees to help with the project. WOW this is fantastic news! I have been begging, pleading, whining, anything for the last 6 weeks to get this piece of equipment for our project. All with no success. I had stopped by the PDC the day before to visit with my friend AGCS Jill Johnston and CDR Jim Berdeguez the CO of the PDC. Jim had called in his XO and told me to tell him what I needed. Now I have it. This is huge and I am hugging that angel on my shoulder!
I fall asleep with my mind racing. Tomorrow I will build a playground! Tomorrow is not just another day. Oh my gosh, this is actually happening! The major hurdles have been cleared and tomorrow culminates this project of hope, of the love of and by children. A million little details rush at me but finally I drift off to a fitful night of tossing and turning. Tomorrow I will smile all day long!

Rhonda Honegger
Operation Colonial Friends Coordinator
colonialfriends@cox.net