The girls enjoyed their volunteer work at the 4-H food booth at the Cumberland Fair yesterday but there were a couple of memorable moments -- as there always are when dealing with the general public.

Take for instance the man who put his dirty dog bowl (w/kibble still in it) through the order window and into one of the girl's hands and asked her to wash it. It was either take the bowl or let it drop. Fino intervened on G.'s behalf and sent it right back out with a suggestion to wash it in the bathroom. (I have a feeling he would have offered a more colorful suggestion if the kids weren't around.)

Or the guy who ordered several sodas and kept asking L. for refills. The first was because his son had spilled it. Then it was because he drank it all. He was demanding and L. wasn't sure what to do about his request until one of the adults stepped in and asked him to pay for the refills. He didn't come back.

Then there was the woman who was hovering over the counter where the grill guys were (i.e., half her body was over the counter and into Fino and Josh's work space) offering pointers on how they could manage the orders better. As you can imagine, the guys didn't care for that so much but they showed amazing self-control in refraining from making any comments back.

There was a guy who ordered 3 hot dogs, 2 burgers and a sausage, paid for them then took off and never came back to collect his order. After calling the order number out for 30 minutes, I finally gave up. Someone in the crowd thought maybe the person just didn't hear me. That produced a chuckle from Fino. Quiet is not usually a word used to describe me.

Then there was a guy who came up to the booth asking questions for several minutes about the donuts we were selling. He asked multiple times what flavors we had (there were 4), who made them and confirming twice they were not from Dunkin Donuts. He walked away without making a purchase.

But there were lots of wonderful people who purchased items at the booth yesterday that were patient with the kids and clearly supportive of their effort to learn how to manage everything.

Like the woman L. gave a soda cup filled mostly with foam. It took L. several minutes to fill up the cup with actual soda and learn the nuances of dispensing carbonated drinks.

Or the slow moving line because it took a while for G. to tally an order and give back change. She did get the hang of things with Sarah, her 4-H leader, helping her out.

So I write this entry with humble respect. My hat goes off to those brave - and very patient - people who work with the public every day.

The food booth team that took orders, managed the cash drawer and dispensed the drinks.

Fino and our leader's husband Josh manned the grill.