Sweltering in Parker

 Last weekend my husband, son, and I journeyed South to the annual Parker Days Festival. It was hot, probably near 90 and the festival was on top of asphalt - well most of it. It was incredible how hot it felt. I love going to outside events and finding reasons to celebrate, especially if it will involve food, laughter and my family. The heat sure wasn't going to stop me from having a good time. I was prepared with a bottle of water, and we had eaten just before we headed out, so we didn't show up starving. 
 After we arrived, we took a good stroll through before deciding what to do. This involved finding the food and drink, which landed us on the asphalt. 

 In the first place, I couldn't believe they would do that to the vendors - placing the food in the hottest area, and to the people. I'm always hungry, unless I'm too hot to eat. This was one such case. Upon doing a bit of people watching, (one of my favorite hobbies), I wasn't alone. 

 A small family caught my eye, but only because the littlest member's face was so red. She was in a pull along wagon. She was quiet and obviously miserable. Her cheeks were beet red, her hair tousled and sweaty. She was lethargic. 

 In the heat, I wasn't surprised by this. No, what surprised me, was she was sitting in the sun, while the family took a break sitting down....IN THE SHADE. 

 I'm always floored by the lack of thought I see in the world, but it makes me ache when I see things like this. This went on for some time, and not knowing how long they'd been there before we strolled along...I decided to walk by and glare at the Mom to get her to come to her senses. She pulled the little girl out of the wagon and set her on her lap. (Sheesh, thank God dirty looks work, I'm sure words would not have been fun.)

I'm sure she wasn't leaving her daughter in the sun to overheat on purpose, but sometimes we need to be pulled back into our bodies, even us Moms, who better to do this than another Mom?