Don't Throw Tantrums

We went with friends to the Parade of Lights in Chicago.  It's a pretty cool parade, Mickey rides high on his carriage and waves his wand to turn on Christmas lights all over the Magnificient Mile.
But it was so packed that
when we were still about 50 feet from the parade sidelines we became unable to move in any direction.  From the top of Pierre's shoulders, Beau would call out what he could see of the parade.  However, the push of the crowd was powerful and we were scared that the children would get seperated from us or trampled and we quickly headed to the train to go home.

We were packed in the train like sardines and an a very vocal angry woman near the door, let's call her Betty, was shouting profanities and pushing people back out of our car. Our train was cruzing along and rounding a corner when our train derailed.  There were deafening grating noises as we halted to a stop.  Our car was tipped at an angle and the power went off.  Luckily the emergency lights came on but the car began filling with smoke.  People were screaming and shoving.  We didn't know if the smoke was from fire behind us and we were in a very tight tunnel.   For a moment, I wondered if this night would change our lives forever.   Pierre was reassuring everyone around us that we would be fine and that we just needed to patient for help to come.  We got people to play a game as a distraction.  But Betty...Betty was not helping. She was hysterical--screaming that her daughter was going to die, pulling the chain to open the door, trying to shove her daughter out into the tunnel, attacking everyone around her (making a pregnant woman bawl) and when help arrived about 45 minutes later, Betty wanted attention.  They tried to quickly pacify her so they could assess the train, then she went beserk.  Sheesh!  Eventually our train was dragged to the next station and we all got off.

Needless to say, we got the kids to bed a little later than planned. Our kids deemed it an adventure (and Beau later told me that he's glad we're teaching him not to throw tantrums while he's little, so he won't throw tantrums when he's all grown up.)