A commentary by a Victoria writer.

This was my first time. Not just the getting up at 6 in the morning. But getting up, getting out the door, then standing in the April chill to carefully place hundreds of little paper cups on a table, then try and fill them with water. Just half full. Not too much, not too little.

Then we waited.

And then they came. And fast.

The first ones don’t take water. Not a single cup from the outstretched arms. Come on, I got up at 6! Please. But I get it. They are the elite. And stopping or grabbing water just slows you down. But more potential customers were not far behind. Tens, then hundreds.

And they kept coming. All 9,000 or so of them.

All sizes, shapes, ages. Some pushing strollers, their kids fast asleep. Others with strollers who seemed desperate to finish cause the kid was crying. There was bride, in her dress, and a lot of tutus. There was a dinosaur of sorts who didn’t want my cup of water. Maybe that’s why they went extinct.

And then it happened. I got my first hit. I stood there, my arm outstretched, the........

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