Foam Party

This morning I read an article about Tropical Storm Gloria which is currently shutting down parts of Spain. Among the usual reports of gale force winds and massive sea waves, one report caught my eye. Baffled residents of Tossa de Mar woke up one morning to find the streets filled with massive amounts of sea foam.

As I looked at these photos I could not help but be reminded firstly of what a weird world we live in, and secondly of the time when my sister and I nearly caused a similar scene in our quiet suburb as children. It was my birthday and my father decided, it being a warm day and all, that the children could make use of the jacuzzi (thankfully located outdoors) while the adults chatted inside. To liven things up he added a few squirts of dishwashing liquid to the water which, when the jets were turned on, made quite a nice bit of foam. He then went inside to socialise with the other adults. But alas, he made a grave error. He left the bottle of dishwashing liquid behind.

As most people know, as children we have a very American way of thinking. In other words bigger and more is better. So we figured that, if a small amount of dishwashing liquid could create a moderate amount of foam, what would adding the entire bottle do? So we decided to find out. As we were out of sight of the adults their first clue that something was amiss was when white specks of foam started appearing in the garden, carried there by the breeze. Imagine their surprise when, shortly after that, a wall of foam higher than the door suddenly appeared from the direction of the jacuzzi. My dad had a heck of a time trying to explain to his neighbour why a massive wave of foam spilled over his wall and into his garden, no doubt scaring the pants off of his poodle in the process.

But what about the children, you ask. Were they okay? Not only were we okay, we were having the time of our lives. We were burrowing through the foam, playing hide and seek and generally having a ball! My family and I still fondly remember my impromptu foam-filled birthday party. It has become something of a family legend. And I am still proud that I had my first foam party when I was but a lad, before other people starting copying my idea.......