Terminalcoffee discussion

I was thinking about Sarah's 80's movie night...and how she said she had fun...and I was thinking about the question, "How do you have fun without spending a lot of money?"

I can usually have fun for an hour or two in a coffee shop while dropping two bucks on coffee. If I take my kids it's a little more expensive, maybe six bucks total (usually just my two oldest go with me, the youngest doesn't like the coffee shop yet), as they order Italian sodas. Then we sit by the windows and read. If I don't want to spend any money at all we can hit the library and do pretty much the same thing.

I'll sometimes take the kids to the harbor and watch the ships enter and leave, esp. on summer evenings. I'm a vegetarian, but watching the charter fishing boats unload their catches is still interesting and usually draws a crowd.

http://www.docksidedeli.com/images/fi...

I've started to sketch more, too, since the kids do a lot of art.

And...you?

I can usually manage some fun if I take a drive up to Estes and go to the park. Hiking/camping in the summer or snowshoeing in the winter. Being in the wilderness seems to recharge my battery and makes me extra vivid.

Hm, also for moneyless fun we do a lot of game nights. I'm becoming more of a fan of Apples to Apples, since everyone else loves it. And I like Settlers of Catan. Sometimes a good ol' game of four-way Rummy can light my life and pass the hours in a fun manner.

Plus, the campus has foreign cinema at least three nights a week, for free, and the films are usually current and award-winning.

no, i need material things. i want to be put into a coma until the economy is great

I'm feeling less guilty about my Dubai longings, now, in light of Kevin's rampant materialism.

We used to do a Gourmet night, where four or five couples would get together, with their kids if they wanted, and we would pick a country or style of food like cajun, and the host family would do the entree, and the other families would bring dessert, salad, etc. Bring their adult beverage of choice, and drink and eat until the early hours, it was quite inexpensive that way.

I also like to go to the parks and hike, and now that the expense of the flyfishing equipment is done, I like to flyfish and that is really quiet, and I don'e even care if I catch anything, it is just so tranquil out there.

yeah, i was obviously jerking everyone's chain. we haven't had a pot to pee in, even in good times. my family can have a ball sitting around doing the "In The Summertime" song by Mungo Jerry with each of us doing a different musical part. i have taught my kids to Love People and Use Things. our family motto.

Jim, that sounds like fun. I love to cook, and more importantly, I love to eat!!

Sally, I like doing game nights, too.

Anthony, you sound like such a great dad. I love that you take your boys out and read! Last night we were watching The Neverending Story and one of my friends remarked that the book Bastian read was "huge" and would take her six years to finish. I told her it didn't look big at all to me and she said, "But I don't read." I found that so sad.

OH! I have learned to cut corners in all kinds of ways on entertainment, and I don't feel like I'm lacking in that department at all.

Instead of renting or buying movies, I borrow them from the local library.

I like to take my dog for a walk on the Big Dam Bridge and for a romp at the dogpark - seriously fun people/animal watching...

The farmer's market is about to start up again - I love to people watch there. I never bring more than $10 when I go there. I tend to find great bargains.

When I have visitors in town visiting, we have lots of great lowcost bits of entertainment -

a fairly short drive and, voila, you're at the lake/state park/mountains...

I also like to take people to the Old Mill (can be seen in the opening scene of Gone With the Wind)...

Or to downtown Little Rock where we have several free museums and art exhibits...

Visiting Little Rock Central High School is a very cool and emotional experience (we have a moving tribute to the Little Rock Nine in front of the state capital, after taking a visitor to the high school and giving them a tour of the grounds, I usually go by the statues at the capital)...

And my favorite thing to do with visitors - stop by the rivermarket for some bubble tea to go, take guest(s) to Riverfront Amphitheatre and sit on stage for some good conversation, an amazing view/POV, and bubble tea. :)

We also have a kids park in the summertime that has a splash pad - kids and adults will cool off in the geyser-like sprays that randomly pop up...

And having a swimming pool within walking distance of home is cheap, easy guaranteed entertaining fun for any visitors with kids.

Other fun activities with kids - story time at the local library

A trip to the library to peruse/pick out books to take home

Arts and crafts at home

Baking cookies/desserts (always super fun!)

Visiting Little Rock Central High School is a very cool and emotional experience

Leave those high school boys alone, Heidi!

Bite your tongue, perv! I don't go there while school is in session.

And I'm referring specifically to the fact that it's an historical site ... and very humbling to walk up the steps in front of the school, the very same steps that welcomed entrance for the Little Rock Nine , despite protests and intimidating crowds. :P A friend of mine took a picture of me while I was telling him the story about what happened. I didn't realize he had the camera out at the time. I was a wee bit teared-up (it's the latest av). So, yes... it makes me emotional.

It's not just a story to me... It was an event that affected many adults in my life. My dad and my uncle were students there when this happened. My uncle didn't get to graduate from high school because Little Rock Central High School was shut down for the 58-59 school year - often referred to as "The Lost Year." Some, like my uncle, ended up going straight into military service. Many of the people who would've been in his graduating class didn't graduate high school and were granted admission straight into college because of this. My old rhetoric professor was one of them - he had a PhD and no high school diploma. My grandmother (who celebrated her 85th birthday this past weekend) was a member of the Women's Emergency Committee (WEC) , a group of mothers/women who worked tirelessly to get the high schools opened again under the new desegregation plan.

Dad would tell me stories of being ostracized/bullied by the other kids at school because he and my uncle would ride their bikes to "the other side of the track" to listen to live music in "the black area of town" (yes, they were physically divided by a railroad track, as most Southern towns were). My dad says he and my uncle were called "ni**er lover" and such and harrassed and beaten up because they crossed the tracks to listen to some great live blues music and for no other reason.

When standing next to the life-size statues of The Nine, it becomes tangibly evident that they were unlikely heroes - they were just kids. The link has a series of pics of the plaques and statues, along wiht a group of high school kids hamming for the camera. I posted that link, in particular, because it gives perspective on just how big (scrawny) the Nine were in real life... and what it was like to be surrounded by a mob (except the crowd was considerably larger). And racism is only a generation ago... and still alive, unfortunately. I'll be glad when it (racism) dies off.

We do movie night with neighbors in our building. Netflix keeps that cheap, with homemade snacks.

my friends and I gather, have a cup of coffee with a cake, speak, sing and take pictures

During the summer we do a lot of sitting in the backyard around a fire. Cheap beer is usually involved.

i like that most of these mentioned revolve around spending time with people. interacting is free. unless of course it involves a book club online, high speed internet, faster laptops, bigger flat screens and/or PDA's/iphones.....

I love the outdoors... and its (almost) Free!!! Bonfires, camping, The beach, Fourwheeling (the atv is bought and paid for a few yrs ago so its pretty inexpensive now) Picnics. add some cheap booze to any of these and it triples the fun factor. i live in a teeny tiny town so there is nothing to do but enjoy life's simple pleasures or shop. haha

Um. Goodreads1

Welcome to tC, Gina...

Thank you Randomanthony!