The last time Kristin Carney was willing to wait for hours in a long line, it was for tickets to a Prince concert. For Pam Chaundy, it was for tickets to a U2 concert.
But on March 18 the hot ticket was a place in a popular three-day-a-week, morning preschool program for 4-year-olds. Both women, now moms, were trying to get their youngsters enrolled in the Tot Spot, Brighton's popular preschool program.
"My husband Chris got here at 10 p.m. Thursday night," said Carney. "He wore a snowmobile suit and slept in a sleeping bag in his car after starting a sign up list on the door. I thought he was crazy going at 10, but he proved me wrong because if I was behind these ladies who got here at midnight, our daughter wouldn't have gotten in the class we wanted."
Carney replaced her husband in line at 4 a.m. It was about that time that the Miller Intergenerational Center's head custodian Sandy Wilson looked outside and saw the snow.
"It was my day off, but I could see the weather was bad, and it's pretty hard to be out in the cold," said Wilson, who arrived at the school at 4:30 a.m. and opened the door so parents could wait inside.
A mix of moms and dads were lined up, some sitting on fold-up chairs, some on the floor, some reading, some chatting and some talking on cell phones.
Following Carney's first place position were three neighbors - Heather Horst, Pam Chaundy and Liz Glaser - in that order. They'd arrived at midnight and watched a movie in one of their cars.
"We made a party of it," said Chaundy. "You've got to get your kid in the right preschool. My first child went here, too."
http://www.mlive.com/news/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1111765424102730.xml
But on March 18 the hot ticket was a place in a popular three-day-a-week, morning preschool program for 4-year-olds. Both women, now moms, were trying to get their youngsters enrolled in the Tot Spot, Brighton's popular preschool program.
"My husband Chris got here at 10 p.m. Thursday night," said Carney. "He wore a snowmobile suit and slept in a sleeping bag in his car after starting a sign up list on the door. I thought he was crazy going at 10, but he proved me wrong because if I was behind these ladies who got here at midnight, our daughter wouldn't have gotten in the class we wanted."
Carney replaced her husband in line at 4 a.m. It was about that time that the Miller Intergenerational Center's head custodian Sandy Wilson looked outside and saw the snow.
"It was my day off, but I could see the weather was bad, and it's pretty hard to be out in the cold," said Wilson, who arrived at the school at 4:30 a.m. and opened the door so parents could wait inside.
A mix of moms and dads were lined up, some sitting on fold-up chairs, some on the floor, some reading, some chatting and some talking on cell phones.
Following Carney's first place position were three neighbors - Heather Horst, Pam Chaundy and Liz Glaser - in that order. They'd arrived at midnight and watched a movie in one of their cars.
"We made a party of it," said Chaundy. "You've got to get your kid in the right preschool. My first child went here, too."
http://www.mlive.com/news/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1111765424102730.xml
