Kiwanis Travel and Adventure Series

For several years in a row my family got tickets to the Kiwanis Travel and Adventure Series. The Kiwanis was the local sponsor for this program they were held in the Chapel at Iowa Wesleyan College. For the price of a ticket you could attend four or five programs each year. They were usually held during the winter months.

The presenter would project a movie on a big screen on the stage and then would narrate as the movie went along. Usually the movie would take us to some exotic place in the world. There were trips to Jamaica, the Sahara, or the frigid artic. It was like National Geographic was coming alive right in front of us.

Growing up we assumed these would be places we would never get to visit so we were going there vicariously through the presenter. When Becky and I were in Jamaica high up in the Blue Mountains a few years ago we saw a spot along a narrow, remote mountain road that I know I have seen before. There, out of the side of the mountain, was a tube with a jug under it. As the water dripped out it would fill the jug. People of the area would come along and leave their empty jug and take the full one. That would happen over and over again all day long. I think I had seen that before…in the Travel Adventure Series.

When we went to the shows I always liked to sit in the balcony. Mom and Dad usually sat down stairs and encouraged me to sit down there, too. There was usually someone there my age so I usually talked my parents into sitting in the balcony with that person. When my sister didn’t go my parents would let me bring along a friend. In the balcony, we watched the presentation and didn’t feel like we had to sit still or even be real quiet.
We also watched the bats swoop down into the light scooping up insects that were drawn there. I believe the bats are still there.

There was usually an intermission. We would go downstairs and use the restroom in the basement and then stop and get a drink at the drinking fountain. There was always a long line there and sometimes the show would start up before you could get your drink and get back to your seat. Why no one ever thought of selling food and drink at these events I don’t know. It would surely have been profitable.

Now, if it was a boring presentation, it was hard for a boy not to get a little restless. One of our regular pass times was to flick paper wads off of the balcony rail. A good flick would carry almost to the front row. Then we would giggle uncontrollably as the person who was hit would look up toward the bats and wipe the spot where they were hit vigorously. More than once we had to make a quick move to another spot in the balcony and put on our most innocent face.

Once in awhile we would crawl down an empty row to a point directly behind people watching the program and then listen in on what they had to say. Holding back my laughter sometimes was more than I could stand and air would squeeze out between my lips leaving me embarrassed. Sometimes we would quietly sit in the seat behind them and then suddenly cough real loud usually getting the intended reaction we were looking for and then sit there and act like we had no idea why the person was scared.

The best trick was to switch something from one person to another. Women’s’ purses were an easy target because they were always on the floor below the persons seat. It was no problem to move one down a few seats or switch some around. Then, of course, we would have to wait until people started to leave to see the puzzled reaction.

So, the Kiwanis Travel and Adventure Series was often an adventure for my friends and me.