Selling pizza at the Hokie game

I know what Wall Street, the presidential candidates, the president himself and even our own newscasts say.  There’s a terrible recession looming.

There’s evidence everywhere, but let me tell you one place it is not.  At the Hokie game.

My wife and I joined other Cave Spring High School volunteers working a food booth in the stands during the Western Kentucky game.  We made and sold personal pan pizzas for $5.  For $3 you could get a soft drink, a bottle of water, bag of popcorn or a bag of peanuts.

While you might think those are steep prices for people who are watching their so-called discretionary income, I couldn’t see any evidence of it.

People were buying that stuff faster than Tyrod Taylor can scamper 30 yards on a quarterback keeper.

Granted it was hot, but $3 for a bottle of water?  Some people complained, but not many.  And a lot of people bought 4 bottles or more. 

Business was steady but slow until mid first quarter.  Then it picked up.  As halftime approached and during half time there were more customers than three college educated adult sports booster volunteers could handle.  We called in back-ups.

One person scooped ice into cups.  Another fetched pizzas.  Mary and I took orders and money.  Our stack of $1’s was replaced by a stack of $20’s as people plunked down the larger bills for the water and soft drinks.  We sold cases of Coke, Diet Coke and Sprite.  (Incidentally we sold maybe five Coke Zero’s all day) 

At the end of the day, Lori, the chief volunteer totaled up the money from the two booths assigned to Cave Spring.  I’m not sure how much it was, but it will add up to thousands for the sports boosters by the end of the season. 

It was fast, fun work, and it felt good knowing it was going to a good cause.  Maybe during better economic times there might even be MORE business, but we couldn’t have served any more people any faster than we did on Saturday.

Maybe “discretionary” means “spend it at the Hokie game.”