Last week I sat at the breakfast table sipping coffee, my son was eating his fifth sausage patty, my daughter was (not so) secretly feeding her eggs to the dog, and I was planning our day. Right around the time my son proved to me his hands were clean by wiping his greasy fingers on my arm, I received a Facebook message from a Macy’s representative.
Usually when I receive these types of messages I write them off as spam, but this one seemed legit. Macy’s wanted me to participate in a campaign for them called Macy’s American Icons. It was a TV segment on the local Fox 59 morning news promoting Macy’s Day at the Ballpark. I didn’t know exactly what I would be doing, but it sounded fun enough so I agreed to do it… if they sent me a little more information. When I received a follow up email I instantly became nervous because of the phrases, “a friend to model with you” and “contact you with our stylist.”
Modeling?
Stlyist?
What did I get myself into this time?
With some nervous anticipation and a tiny bit of foolishness, I said I would do it. I had a friend agree to “model” with me, so at least I would have someone to hang out with. Also, it was taking place at the Indianapolis Indians ballpark downtown, which seemed like a cool place to spend part of a day. The best part of all this was, I didn’t even have to figure out what clothes to wear, it was all furnished by Macy’s.
That morning my oldest daughter was in school so she couldn’t go, my son was at his last morning of preschool and didn’t want to miss it, so it would just be me, the Blonde Bomber, my buddy and his daughter. The BB and I arrived and wandered around the ballpark while the everyone else decided where we were going to film. Next, we were sent into the medic room, where we were told to change into our “modeling outfits.” I was given jeans, a long-sleeved shirt, and a sportcoat. I was 80 degrees outside. This was not going to end well.
We went to our location to record the first segment. It all went off without a hitch, believe it or not.
Next, we headed into the dugout. Being in a profession baseball team’s dugout was by far the coolest part of the day for me. My daughter liked it there too. Not because she thought it was neat, but because they already had the water cooler and cups set out for the game that would take place later that day.
While us dads were shooting the second segment, our kids used most of the cups that were supposed to last an entire baseball team the duration of the game. In three minutes, they drank or spilled most of the water in the cooler too! If any players were cramped due to dehydration that day, it’s probably because those two girls used up all their water.
After we left the dugout, we changed clothes again, this time into Polo shorts and a Polo t-shirt, (thankfully no more sportcoat) and prepared for our final taping. The third segment was just us dads again, no kids. After the water cooler fiasco in the dugout, the ballpark representative agreed to watch our kids during the taping. Once he agreed to do that, we didn’t really care how long it took to tape the final segment.
After fifteen minutes of taping we reunited with our kids and headed back to the medic room change clothes and return our modeling outfits. As I handed in my clothes, the Macy’s representative told me to go ahead and keep the long-sleeved shirt I wore earlier. I thought he was just being nice, but then he told me I sweated so much in the shirt, there was no way Macy’s would ever be able to sell it.
At that moment I knew my modeling days were over, on exactly the same day they began.
*adds Ralph Lauren- Polo model to resume
-Pete
Also, If you are interested in the Macy’s Day at the Ballpark promotion. The promotion is, spend $35 in the men’s department at Castleton Macy’s and get two tickets to the Indianapolis Indians game this Sunday.
