The BEST of Friends...

Friendship is like peeing in your pants, Everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warmth. 

MOPAR...Seriously?

Maybe it's because I'm female, or maybe it's because I grew up in New Jersey, but until I moved to Ohio, I had never heard of MOPAR.  I still don't really know what it stands for or what the big draw is, but it is one of the most fascinating spectacles of social interactions between adults, kids, and families that I have witnessed in a long time.  Basically, cars roll into town - not any old car, but specifically muscle cars, street riders, performance cars, and antique cars.

From about 8pm to 11pm, these cars drive up and down a one mile stretch of road.  That's what they do...they drive up and down the street.  That's it.  Sometimes they peel out and burn rubber, but mostly they drive up and down the street....for three hours...up and down, up and down.  Then they park in a huge parking lot and ogle each others cars, then call it a night. 

Since my husband is a police officer, every year he is required to work MOPAR.  This year, I decided to go down and watch the spectacle in person.  Now, mind you, I didn't do it like everyone else.  Most people bring lawn chairs, coolers, blankets, radios, etc. and sit their behinds along the sidewalk to watch the cars.  I call it traffic, they call it MOPAR.

With the amount of people, you would expect that there would be fireworks or carnival rides or something, but nope.  Just cars...going up and down the road.  At least there were food trucks - as it would not be right to have all of these people and no place to eat since Burger King, Popeyes Chicken, and Subway don't really constitute proper MOPAR food.
The picture above contains friends of ours.  They own the Sunoco right on the corner of the main "drag" of MOPAR (that place is a WHOLE different social experiment)! They have their lawn chairs, their hookah, and 5000 children.  They have LOTS of experience with MOPAR.  They are also really lucky that all the police officers in the city use their gas station to fill the cruisers.  At almost any given time, you can find a police car at their station.  To help out all the officers - since EVERYONE has to work that night, these people set up a grill in the PARKING LOT OF A GAS STATION and grill food for their family and the officers.  Check this out...

Take note of the fabulous make-shift table..some bread crates, a few cases of beer, and piece of laminate.  Viola! An outdoor kitchen...in the middle of a parking lot...at a gas station. 

I guess my point is that it just fascinates me as to what entertains people.  It was almost disappointing when the night was over.  The people watching was FABULOUS and the cars were cool (for about 6 minutes).  But the best thing of the evening was the laughter and friendship shared by very diverse people in a small town, in the middle of Ohio.

Next year, I think I'll bring a lawn chair. 

By the way,  MOPAR stands for MOtor PARts...I looked it up.

I'm not sure what this blog will be about or what it will turn into, but here it is.  I think it will be a lot of randomness - lots of "holy cow" moments, and commentary of things happening in my life and around me. Almost nothing surprises me anymore, but there are times that I just can't keep it in.  So, here it is.  I'm just sayin...