Amber Love 03-AUG-2012 Today Ashley and I trekked through the traffic of eastern Pennsylvania to go to the Occupational Development Center’s annual superhero picnic. We dressed as X-Men’s Rogue and Kitty Pryde.
The ODC is a facility that has a broad range of adults with developmental disabilities who work there assembling products and other other employment tasks but it’s not a residential home. There were approximately 150 people there if I have any sense of crowd counting. Most showed their superhero pride wearing ball caps or creating their own chest logos which were attached to their shirts and capes. Some went all-out with costumes.
The ODC staff got into the spirit as well and I’m happy to say the public relations director Cheryl is newly addicted to cosplay! She loved putting on a Supergirl costume so much that she plans to do more and will likely join us for NJ Superhero Weekend in October. We also got to meet Don who is new to the east coast and was excited to meet other Superhero Costuming Forum people. He’ll was Green Arrow and will also join us in October.
The sun blazed in full force and most of us kept cover in the shade. The occasional breeze was refeshing and glorious. I spotted a cart filled with water balloons that I almost laid on top of just to cool off.
Joining the superheroes were real heroes-in-training, the Young Marines which was like an ROTC type of organization. The kids were amazing to socialize with. They posed for pictures, helped serve refereshments, and then everyone got down dancing to all sorts of music I didn’t recognize. In my head, I heard “Booty Do Math” by Kirby Krackle just to get into the groove with the whippersnappers.
Surrealness happened when a man whispered to me and said my old real legal name asking if that’s who I was. He introduced himself and it turned out it was my high school chemistry lab partner who I haven’t seen since graduation in 1990! He looked amazing and as it turns out, he runs the ODC. Unfortunately the only picture I got of us is terribly blurry so I’ll wait for Cheryl to send some over.
Despite the atrocious and unbearable heat, we survived. We left a little early since traffic had been bad getting there on the 222. At Dunkin Donuts, Ashley braved going inside to get us Coolattas since it didn’t have a drive-thru. We hadn’t eaten all day. Our legs and hands were shaking from the heat exhaustion and lack of blood sugar. I drove like a maniac but there was plenty of jammed traffic. Now we’re home, disgustingly sweaty but fed. It’s time to celebrate the day by lying in bed and having a MODERN FAMILY marathon. See you next year, Lancaster!
The full photo album is on Google.
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.