“Don’t put those flowers there!” the short, white haired, elderly lady shouted. I stared at the lady as she yelled at us then anxiously looked around for one of our sponsors.

We had just neatly placed three plastic pots of small, golden flowers on the car port before the lady yelled at us. One of our sponsors went and talked to her and told us to put the golden flowers in a different spot.

I was participating in the annual Rock’n Roll Paint-a-thon in Phoenix, Arizona with my high school’s Interact Club. We were in a trailer park the seemed like it was filled with mostly elderly people.

The trailer we were at was a creamy yellow color. It had cute little stairs connecting to a covered patio and a ramp connecting to, what appeared to be, the front door. The outside area of the trailer was pretty clean and nice looking, which, honestly, disappointed me slightly because there was not a lot to be painted. However, it was the perfect place for a little, old lady.

We went over to where the lady wanted the flowers planted. I looked at the spot with a quizzical look on my face. Then I realized the flowers already there were fake. At first glance they look like they are real flowers. They looked real because they were colorful, so when I first looked at them I thought “Ooh pretty flowers.”

We began plucking out the flowers and as we do, we hear “chirp chirp” and what seems like 100 crickets flee from the area. I scream in terror. It had been a warm, long, and tiring day, so I refused to go back to planting the flowers because I am absolutely terrified of bugs. I figured it would be okay if I didn’t help with that because I had already spent the day cleaning, planting flowers, and, of course, painting.
Earlier in the day, I had planted the flowers in the pots and painted the rails to the stairs, which was challenging because I had to be careful not to let the paint drop on the carpet covering the stairs. When I gave someone else the brush to paint they looked at me and chuckled because I had gotten some paint in my hair

As we are nearly done working on the trailer the lady comes out again and says, “What about this part,” referring to the inside of a screened off area. I look around for a sponsor to talk to the lady because I was scared to upset her by saying the wrong thing. A sponsor comes over and tries to appease the lady, but the lady still has a sullen look.

On the ride back to the school the sponsor talks to us about elderly people and why the lady reacted in such an unhappy manor. As the sponsor was talking to us I realized that even though I was disappointed the there was not a lot of painting to be done, I should have been content with just helping a little, elderly lady. I also learned that a person may seem unhappy with what has been done for them but given time they appreciate it. And I hope the lady enjoys what we did to help her, even if she does not, I am glad to have participated in the Rock’n Roll Paint-a-thon. And I hope the chirping crickets did not go back to nesting in the pretty flowers.