Readers tell me to lighten up on Fantasy of Lights
The people have spoken, and many of them have the same message: When it comes to letting kids ride poking through vehicle sunroofs through Fantasy of Lights at Vasona Lake County Park, I need to lighten up.
In an email, Shannon Cogan disagreed with my blanket concept that standing up through the sunroof at low speeds is inherently dangerous. “The drive through Vasona Park is not on a public street, there is no cross-traffic, there should be no pedestrians (‘stay in your car’ signs abound),” she wrote. “It’s follow the leader in slo-mo. Kids can absolutely differentiate between safety rules necessary across different environments, and that’s what we should teach them.”
She — and others — thought the woman holding a child through the roof while driving was definitely being unsafe. But Ed Burling agreed with my self- description of being a “killjoy,” having taken his grandchildren, ages 6 and 9, to the illumniated display on Dec. 15, the same night we went. And he let them stand up on their seats and look through the sunroof.
“Yes, a sudden stop or turn could jerk them around, but I hardly think it is ‘a recipe for disaster,’ ” he wrote. “And yes, no one would do this on Highway 85. This is Vasona Park, a closed environment, free from speeding cars and panic stops.”
I’m not surprised at the reaction, and there were plenty of more comments on Facebook leaning in the same direction, but I still think it’s a crazy maneuver, and, you know, illegal. But I’ve always been more of a rule follower than the “fun parents” who let their kids dive into swimming pools that say “no diving” or ride their bikes without a helmet. But I’ll let George Bassi have the last word.
“Every day in the summer, the local farmers would pick us up — 4 or 5 of us in the back — to go pick prunes at their ranch, going 40 to 50 miles an hour on back country roads. Guess what? We survived,” he wrote. “Going 5 miles an hour thru the park, letting these kids peer out of the sunroof to get a 360 degree view of this spectacle is a wonderful experience for them, one they may never forget. This is hardly a recipe for disaster. Stop being a Grinch. Let these families have some fun.”
‘NUTRACKER’ SURPRISE »
Symphony Silicon Valley’s presentation of “The Nutcracker” opened last week, and nearly 5,000 fifth- graders, teachers and parent chaperones attended previews of the ballet featuring dancers from Moscow performing at Center for the Performing Arts as part of the ArtSPARK educa- tional outreach program. The shows were Thursday and Friday, and it sounds like the smiles on the faces of the kids confirmed it was well-received. But, it turns out that one school was left out of the fun.
Parent permission slips didn’t go out on time because of a miscommunication between staff members at the school (and I don’t want to compound the embarrassment by naming the school). So when the school bus showed up, some 70 students couldn’t board it. That didn’t sit well with Symphony Silicon Valley President Andrew Bales when he heard about the mixup. His solution was to invite those students to attend a midweek performance this week for free and to bring their families.
That’s an ending Charles Dickens would have been happy with, and you can still see the show yourself through Sunday. Go to www. symphonysiliconvalley.org for ticket info.