To drink or not to drink

Lonely
London, ON, November 2011

About this photo. Thematic. Muted. Here.

On a forgotten stretch of wall along the forgotten underside of the football stadium on the university campus here, you can drink all the water you want. Or not. Water fountains have always made me a little nervous.

I was here with our daughter to watch her high school football teams play in a couple of season-ending championship games. It's her first year in high school, and she couldn't wait to see her classmates hit the field. She's a kid who understands the meaning of spirit, so despite the cold, windy greyness that blanketed the day, we headed off to the stadium and settled in for some ball.

I learned a number of things on this day:

• Hot chocolate isn't just a tasty-if-fattening treat. It's a mode of survival for Great White North football fans.
• Some parents make the ugliest fans. Leaning over the railing and screaming at your kid to "stop being a wuss" won't win you the parent-of-the-year trophy.
  
• Marching bands are a wonderful addition to a day at the stadium.
• Not so much when they're sitting right behind you.
• Bare metal bleachers are a bad idea. Forgetting pillows and/or blankets? Even worse.
• Dogs can be football fans, too.
• I can think of few people I'd rather hang around with than this kid. I knew this before, of course, but it's nice to be reminded.

Two thrilling, down-to-the-wire victories later, it was time to head home. By this point I couldn't feel my fingers, but I didn't care as it had been a thoroughly sweet day with my munchkin. As we walked among the boisterous crowd out the back of the stadium, the sun came out and cast a shadow against the bare concrete block. Dahlia almost instinctively slowed down, knowing full well that I couldn't resist taking one last shot.

She gets me.

Your turn: So do you drink from public water fountains?