These past few days the Special Olympics have brought a great deal of
business to the car rentals at the airport, in fact they nearly wiped out
the inventory available to rent at my company. People are very proud to
announce their child or grandchild is in the Special Olympics. The lucky
ones get hotel rooms in Ames where they are taking place this week. The
unlucky ones have rooms in nearby towns and the northside of Des Moines. I
have seen many teams walk though with same t-shirts advertising Team Indiana
and Team Ohio.
I also had to explain why we have a small selection of cars to choose from
to people without reservations. One guy said he is here for the Olympics and
still angry I have only 2 cars for him to choose from because he is a club
member of our company and never had any problem like this before. Another
guy looked confused asking, What are the Special Olympics? His wife answered
him so I didn't have to. A coworker claimed to never have heard of the
Special Olympics before. I asked what planet does he live on. Today I
announced that the newspaper said they were founded in 1968 (a year after he
was born).
A son of the founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Timothy Shriver, won an award
for his longstanding support of the Olympics last night. If you didn't know
this, Eunice Kennedy Shriver is a sister of the infamous President JFK; wife
of Sergeant Shriver who ran for president, founder of the Peace Corps,
founder of Headstart, and died of Alzheimer's causing their daughter; Maria
Shriver, the journalist who married the bodybuilder-turn actor-turn Governor
of California to write a children's book about the disease. I guess the
Special Olympics needs better advertising if there are people walking around
who have never heard of them. My coworker didn't even know who Eunice
Kennedy Shriver was. I think I work with an alien even if he was born in
Boston, MA. Post later. Bye!
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