Festivals in Seattle
While on vacation, My dad took my two-year old son on a short trip to one of the largest Native American Pow Wows in the country. It’s a large festival that thousands of people attend every year. It was just the two of them, grandpa and grandson, a fun event for both. After the short drive they parked the car and headed into the large event hall hand-in-hand.
The two of them walked around for nearly two hours looking at all the goods for sale when my dad started to feel hungry. He and my young son found the line for food and after a short wait they were at the front ordering food to share. Grandpa began to pay the bill while drums began to play in the background. My son began to pull on his grandfather’s pants, letting him know he wanted to go see what was making that noise; my son loved music. Grandpa looked down at the young face so excited and told him as soon as he got the food he would take him to see the drums. My son looked disappointed at having to wait. He was only two and had no comprehension of time.
My dad looked away for just a moment to see if the food was ready and when he looked back down where my young son was supposed to be, he discovered that he was gone. He quickly glanced around but the young boy was nowhere to be found. Immediately he began to search for the little person, but with thousands of people attending the event he quickly realized that it would be no easy task. Seeing a security guard close by he ran over to him and told him of the missing boy. After giving him a description the guard used his walkie talkie to notify everyone about the lost child. Over the next ten minutes there was an intensive man hunt underway; my dad stayed close to the security guard in case anyone had spotted him.
After what seemed like hours, but was more like minutes, a voice came over the walkie talkie informing them they had found the boy but were unable to get to him. Grandpa ran as fast as he could to the location where they said he was but was met with a large wall of people. The security guard parted the people allowing my dad to get through. When my dad got to the front of the crowd he saw a large drum circle with about 20 dancers in costumes moving to the beat of the drums and in the middle of the dancers was my young son dancing his heart out with a big smile on his face. Due to the nature of the dance they had to let the song finish before my dad could retrieve his young grandson. When he did the boy received a large cheer from the crowd; they loved him. With a quick wave he scooped up the little boy in him arms and went back to get his food. By that time my son had really built up an appetite; grandpa held him tight on his lap as they enjoyed their meal together. My dad said he did not put him down the rest of the trip.
