Originally published in The Nome Nugget, Summer 1995
The final day of the Summer Reading Program at the Kegoayah Kozga Library was this week. The weight of reading 30 books for my oldest son is also lifted. It wasn’t that Sam didn’t think he could read 30 books. Between Beverly Cleary’s “Ramona” series, Tom Swift novels, and any book about dinosaurs, Sam knew finishing 30 books in 10 weeks wouldn’t be that difficult. He was proud of earning free passes to the rec center and the pool. He looked forward to the library’s ice cream party for the program participants (as long as there was plenty of chocolate syrup). It was also very motivating for him to get the little prizes out of Mrs. McKenna’s wooden treasure chest. It was that grand prize that had him worried. He just wasn’t sure he wanted to have lunch with the mayor.
“Do I have to sit next to him? Do I have to talk to him?” Sam asked. “Maybe I’ll just stop at 29,” he said, looking through the library’s bright yellow brochure. “I don’t know what I’d say to the mayor of Nome.” “Well,” I said, “I don’t think you have lunch with him all by yourself. I mean, I think there will be other kids there. And maybe Mrs. McKenna will sit between you and him.” But Sam was unconvinced. A mayor after all, is the boss of the city. A mayor is bigger and badder, with more power and influence, than both of your parents combined! This was a man to be feared, not to have lunch with!
“Do you remember the guy who flubbed his lines a couple of times when we were doing all those takes for the ‘Good Morning, America’ cameras last April?” I asked. “Yeah,” said Sam. “And, do you remember the guy who was running around in shorts when we were waiting at the gym for ‘South Pacific’ to start?” “Yeah.” “Well,” I said, pausing dramatically, “that was the Mayor of Nome.” Any guy who had to repeat the same sentences so many times and be running around in shorts in front of so many people was probably not going to be too scary.
It also helped that the grand prize lunch was going to be at Fat Freddie’s. “They make good burgers,” Sam said. This is no small admission from a child raised on hamburger sandwiches from Burger King, Whataburger, McDonalds, and his father’s backyard barbecues. Fat Freddie’s burgers are so good, in fact, they can inspire fraud. Sam’s 5-year-old brother Monty was so impressed at the luncheon venue that he asked if he could check out 30 books, return them, and pretend he’d read them. I said that the mayor might ask a few questions about those 30 books he’d pretended to read. “Well,” Monty said, “he might not ask until after I ate my burger!”
Sam finally decided to read that last book and qualified for lunch with Mayor John Handelund. I only wish I could continue at home the reading habits inspired by the “Read Around the World” library program. All I can promise as a grand prize for reading 30 books, however, is lunch with the Project Manager of IT. Maybe if I also promise that the lunch will be at Fat Freddie’s, my kids just might go for it.
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