A few weeks ago, one of our 4-H moms got a hold of me and said,"Hey, would you like to volunteer at Napa's attempt at breaking the Guinness Book Of World Records for the most cars washed in an 8 hour period."
After gaping at her for a micro-second in a little bit of elocution awe, I replied,
"Possibly. Reasons?" (I have been feeling a bit overwrought lately, thus, my vocabulistic prowess has been limited in scope).
"Well, they will donate all of the proceeds to the charity that volunteers to help work the event."
As my Beeflings need some moolah to make super fancy bunk feeders for our steer stalls at fair, my eyes pretty much turned into dollar signs and I blurted, "Sign me up!"
I also signed up my daughter, son, and husband. Because being voluntold is a thing.
The day of the wash arrived, and so did an arctic cold front. Our shift was to be from 8AM-12PM. When we arrived at the Napa parking lot in Hayden, Idaho, it was so cold out that even the local birds were hiding. Some strange, skin shriveling wind was blowing throughout the land, and my soul shrank slightly as I stepped out of the heated interior of my little blue car. It was below forty degrees out with a blustery wind. Ugh.
My son, who is immune to the cold, hopped out and proclaimed, "It's not that cold." Dude was clad in his normal outfit of mesh shorts and a sweatshirt. I am pretty sure that he is powered by some sort of reactor of the Tony Stark vein. However, I did gestate him, so I have been pondering when it was installed.
Anyway, each of Napa's 250 participating locations had to wash 28 cars to break the record. So my crew and I proceeded to do our best sub arctic car wash routine. Some of us stood out by the busy thoroughfare and held signs of enticement. It was $5 to get your car washed, which is actually a pretty sweet deal, as the local car washes are at least a tenner. After a half an hour out on the street corner, my fingers had to be forcibly pried from the sign corners. Their purple pallor was slightly alarming, but a invigorating polar bear plunge into a bucket of soapy water shocked the life right back into my digits.
Normally, a car wash fundraiser is full of a good amount of giggling and dousing. Yesterday's car wash revolved around water application avoidance techniques. I have to admit that I felt a momentary bit of warmth in my core when my daughter doused my cold-hating Polynesian husband. The bellow of indignant rage was heard at least a state away or perhaps felt on the Richter scale, I'll have to concur with the USGS.
By the time our shift was over, we had washed twenty cars, and I felt like I had completed some Viking coming of age ritual. Our crew lit into the proffered lunch feast of pizza with a post bezerker-like frenzy. I had my husband feed me my slice of pizza, as I wasn't able to grasp anything. At least my agony amused the children.
As of this moment, I am not sure if we helped break the record, for the Guinness folk are verifying everything. It was actually a very serious event. There were spotters to make sure that we followed exact car washing protocol, we had to sign "Talent" releases (ha ha) so we could be filmed, and we even had one car disqualified in the beginning because we started drying it before it was fully rinsed.
Something that really provided a warming boost was the generosity of the people who were getting their cars washed. When they found out that the 4H kids got to keep the funds, most folks donated a LOT more than $5. It really is a privilege to volunteer to lead such a fine group of kids. Spending your Saturday morning freezing and scrubbing cars instead of sleeping in and playing Apex Legends is quite a feat, at least in my mind. They are such a dedicated, hard working group of individuals, and I'm proud to help them reach their goals. Even if I became an arctic wight in the process...
And as most of the time, unless otherwise cited, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's, left in the car during the car wash for obvious reasons, iPhone.
Note: Other people got pictures of the event. I, alas, did not, because I was working, my fingers quit working, and I really didn't want to drop my phone in a bucket of water or onto wet chamois cloths.
