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In lugnet.general, Jake McKee writes:
> Inspired by John's post (http://news.lugnet.com/general/?n=39785), I would
> love to throw out a question!
>
> What is your coolest LEGO Experience? Maybe you built an amazing castle when
> you were eight years old. Or perhaps you've had a more recent experience
> like watching an FLL robotics competition where you saw kids participating
> in the most thrilling event of their lives. Or maybe you finished the
> perfect train car and posted it online.
>
> I would love to hear!
Well, actually, it is in part *because* of all my cool Lego experiences that
I simply could not give up the hobby (as described in my post above).
As far as which is my "coolest", that is very hard to say. I have
documented quite a few cool Lego related moments in countless threads here
on Lugnet over the past year or two. I think the most acclaimed of those
was my Fusion Power Plant Moonbase Module.
Here is one experience I don't recall sharing on Lugnet (at least not
recently) (actually, I thought I had, but I don't see the thread now)...:
When I was a junior in high school... uh 1989... my architecture teacher was
also the faculty member who counseled the Student Council. She wanted me to
run for office in the spring so I would be involved in student government as
a senior. I didn't have any interest, but I had a reputation in her class
as a comical cynic, so I said I would run for "Lego Representative to the
Student Council." When she laughed and pointed out the "rule" that all
candidates needed forty signatures from classmates to be nominated. She
thought that was the last of me, but I returned to her class a few days
later with two pages of signatures (perhaps about 150 of our class of 300).
It was still just a big joke. Then came the day of nomination speeches,
where the entire class of 1990 assembled in the auditorium, and those
running for student offices waited for their turn on stage to give a short
speech about their platform. Of course, I thought the whole thing was a
farce because those things are really just popularity contests (usually
anyway, although my senior president was actually the smartest and best
speaker there too, not a stereotypical popular jock).
But I was a member of the drama club, and as such the auditorium was a
regular after-school hang-out for me. I was accustomed to entering the room
through the back stage doors, and on this day I did so. As I passed through
an opening in the stage curtain, I noticed there was an empty chair on the
stage that none of the candidates had taken. So I sat there, on the stage,
just for fun.
That teacher happened to sit in the nearest chair (about eight feet away) to
my left. After introducing the first candidate and returning to her chair,
she leaned over to be behind the podium and whispered, "What the Hell are
you doing up here?" I think that was the first time I had heard a teacher
actually swear at me. I just shrugged with a smile, and turned to listen to
the speaker.
Maybe forty minutes later, after each of the candidates had spoken, the
teacher stood at the podium and said to the student body, "Well, there is
just one more young man who has been sitting up here patiently this whole
time. I actually have no idea what he is going to say, but I guess he
should have the opportunity to speak."
I was floored. I couldn't believe she thought I actually wanted to get up
and speak as a candidate. It was at that very moment that I learned my
first lesson on thinking quickly under pressure, or maybe it was BSing 101.
As she was speaking I quickly formulated a line of thinking for my "speech".
I didn't realize it until I began to stand, but because my seat had been
behind the podium, very few of my classmates could actually see that I was
on stage until I stood. On seeing me rise from nowhere, the 150 teenagers
who had signed my joke-of-a-nomintation suddenly went nuts! They were
cheering and yelling my nickname, and a few even got up on the arms of their
seats to hoot and howl. In one brief moment, I had discovered the
exhilaration that rock stars claim to love so much. (One friend later noted
that it looked like I emerged from the podium itself.)
Once things calmed down, I gave a brief speech outlining how in the past
other classes had solicited companies like Coca-Cola to sponsor the class
and help raise funds for events like the prom and donate computers, etc. I
said I did not know whether TLC (well specifically LSI) were open to such
ideas but that as Lego Representative, I would try my best to find out. As
I sat down, the cheering resumed, partly because so many realized I was
somewhat mocking the system.
...As a postscript, the story kind of fizzled in the end, similar to how
Dave K's movie story did. Over the summer, I wrote a letter to LSI asking
if they would consider involvement as I mentioned in my speech. They
repsonded professionally (I still have the letter somewhere), but said they
would be unable to take part in any such program.
To make up for my inability to really be a Lego representative to my class,
every Friday of my senior year I brought in a different model and displayed
it in each class. ...Of course there's a whole other set of stories
there.... Another time perhaps... ;)
Cheers,
-Hendo
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Coolest LEGO Experience?
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| Inspired by John's post ((URL) I would love to throw out a question! What is your coolest LEGO Experience? Maybe you built an amazing castle when you were eight years old. Or perhaps you've had a more recent experience like watching an FLL robotics (...) (22 years ago, 6-Dec-02, to lugnet.general, lugnet.people) !!
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