Fertile Ground: Baptist Hospital Implosion

On Sunday morning Warren got us all up at 6:00am to drive downtown and watch the Baptist Hospital implosion. He had been looking forward to it for weeks and had scouted out a special viewing spot the day before with the kids. I really wanted to see it, but I really didn't want to get up at 6:00am.

I took one for the team.

We drove down Madison Avenue to a parking lot near the I-40 overpass and lined up along a chain link fence with about a hundred other people. The spot we were in was most reminiscent of a tailgate party. One family had chairs for each of its members--big ones for mom and dad, little ones for the three kids. I said, "Looks like you guys have done this before," to them , since they seemed so comfortable, but they just looked at me like I was an idiot.

Did I mention it was 6:30am?

As we waited for the implosion, we marvelled at the people lounging along the overpass, lining the rooftops, and filing down the street.

I was happy to be there. I felt as though I was treating the boys to a small piece of history. Satchel's excitement was second only to Warren's. Jiro seemed pretty clueless as to why he was hanging out in his stroller in his jammies and a half ton diaper eating Fruit Loops out of a ziplock bag. But it was a cheerful cluelessness.

Sirens went off at exactly 6:45 and we prepared for the big event.