Fucking Old Santa

Monday, December 22, was the Subic Bay H3's own Santa trail. Much like the Angeles City H3's one the day prior, but a tad better organized. Most people had candy and for the ones who forgot to bring their own, or didn't know about the theme of the trail, they had candy for sale at the start.
The theme itself was giving. Let's give these kids a start on a merry X-mas and toss them candy while running through their neighborhoods.
Guess what else starts with the letter "G" ladies and gentlemen? Nope, not Gispert, but greed.
Holy fuck, it was like throwing raw meat into a sea of hungry sharks. Total feeding frenzy and sharing wasn't part of the programming.
It was a double edged sword in a lot of ways. I thoroughly enjoyed giving out candy to kids who are truly in need (squalor conditions in a lot of the places we went through), but when I had kids walking up to me for the umpteenth time on trail with candy overflowing out of their pockets or their shirts bundled up like kangaroo pouches saying, "give me more candy!" it really stung the spirit.
What was worse were the adults. You'd walk up to a little girl or boy and hand them a piece of candy with a "Merry Christmas!" attached and out of no where you'd see their parent or grandparent walk up with their hand out asking, "What about me?"
Fuck off, this is for the kids.
There was a kind of second dawn though as trail moved further and further from the start. You could tell which kids were following along stuffing anything into their pockets and you told them to go away so you could give candy to new kids. I also started to just hand out candy person-by-person. As the bag got lower, it went to kids who were too shy to ask for candy or too busy playing down a side alley to even notice the hashers were there. I think those are the ones who really enjoyed the sweets and I felt really good about seeing the smiles on their faces when out of the blue a few pieces of candy would drop from the sky in front of them.
Honestly, I had it easy though. Fucking Old Man donned a full fledged Santa outfit and trailed with an entourage of red hatted harriets to toss out candy to the massing kids. There were times when you'd be afraid he was going to get bowled over and torn apart by the youngins looking for more sweets.
Moment of the trail though has to go to fellow Las Vegas hasher Special Ed.
There was one kid who continually followed him for most of the trail asking for candy. As he grabbed more and more he started to form a pouch with his shirt. SpEd called him his 'little kangaroo.'
Finally, at the third drink stop, SpEd was running low on candy. There were a bunch of new children around him clamboring for treats and here comes the little kangaroo, pouch stuffed full, asking for more.
So SpEd goes to hand out a candy to kangaroo kid and when he reaches out for it, SpEd gives a quick tug on the top of the kids shirt and a ton of candy spills to the ground. SpEd quickly yells out to all the newer kids without candy, "Look! CANDY!" and in a flash greedy kangaroo kid lost his horde.
AWESOME.
Well, after trail we all gathered in Johannsan's Bar & Grill for circle and dinner. Fucking Old Man as Santa had some of the hashers children sit on his lap, then some of the harriets sit on his lap (Lucking Old Man). Charges were given, down-downs were drunk. I got to meet up with Swamp Thing one more time before he leaves to Phuket, Thailand and I move on to Japan (hopefully).
Lollipop Hemmrrhoid kept things moving quickly and pricisely as only a Chicago native can. The ice was used, the standard Ice Checks (from last Subic Hash post) continued unabated.
I think I've only got one more chance to hang out with these fine buggers, and if what I've been told is true, next weeks trail will be a doozy.
I guess the biggest bonus about hashing more than once with a chapter is that by time two or three, I can start remembering names along with the faces. Personal favorite of this evening was Kentucky Fried Fuckhead.
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, so it may be a span before I get to post again. If anyone knows where I can get a cheap flight to Japan (in the $300-50 range), please let me know!

Update on Cebu Pacific debacle:
Through the graces of spending a day in Manila, I was able to finally walk up to a ticket desk and cancel the flight. The downside is a $25 processing fee that I'll have to swallow, but I'm just glad to get it over with. For what it's worth though, they can still suck a salty left nut. That's my warning to any hashers going to Borneo for 2010 Interhash. I'm just saying.