Lock down!

It's book fair time, and this year I'm the chairperson again. I love this job. All the cases were delivered today, and we managed to get it mostly set up. Also got a long list of other things accomplished (mostly decorations). But today had a little bonus excitement. :)

Sunshine's school used to sit in the middle of nowhere, nothing but fields surrounding it. Now, however, the area has been built up, and it sits near the intersection of two major roads, and within spitting distance of several pharmacies, grocery stores, gas stations, and.... banks. Today's excitement was thanks to a bank robbery across the street, after which the gunman made a break on foot toward the elementary school. So we were under complete lock-down for a good portion of the day while helicopters searched from the air. ALL doors locked, blinds drawn, lights out, kids silent and away from windows. There were five of us PTA volunteers in the work room, huddling in the dark behind the counter, calling people 'on the outside' to try to get more information.

It's kind of weird to be in a situation like that with other people--it's an opportunity to see how differently people handle the stress of potentially dangerous situations. I totally kept my cool. I was more worried about the Scholastic delivery guy being hijacked while attempting to deliver my book fair (which would have completely screwed up the book fair schedule! *wink*). I also worried just a smidge about Sunshine, and whether or not she was freaking out, but figured she was worrying more about me than about her (which turned out to be the case).

Anyway. The moral of today's story is that small towns are not exempt from big city crime, particularly in more desperate times. Thank goodness the lock-down was the extent of the excitement.

**Edited 9/17 to add photo.