Potter Party

At 10:45 pm, Friday night, Ethan and I drove a few blocks from our beach vacation rental to Beach Books in Seaside, Oregon. Beach Books is a great little independent bookstore and around 10:50, there was already a small line forming outside the store. Inside, I could see the final touches being put on the decorations. At 11pm, the line started moving and the Harry Potter release party began.

There were no live owls and we didn't have a magician performing "spells" and tricks. What we did have, however, was a lot of fun. The refreshment table had a cauldron full of butter beer, a big bowl full of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, a bowl of fruit flavored gummy slugs, pretzel wands and even "owl poop" cookies.

There were fun quizzes and a potions test. Witches circulated the room with sorting hats where kids could draw out a card sorting them into a Hogwarts house. There was a costume contest and a little girl that looked like a first year Ginny Weasley won tickets to the Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix movie.

At 2 minutes to midnight, folks started lining up to purchase the book. Many people had pre-ordered the book. I was not one of them. Ethan and I slipped out and drove over to Safeway on highway 101 just in time to see them open 4 boxes of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Books. There were about 8-10 people grabbing books out of the boxes and I grabbed one and got in line to buy it.

While I was waiting in line, I had time to read the first couple of pages. I would have loved to have stayed up all night reading, but decided, at the request of Robert, to wait until the next day to begin the book in earnest.

It was a lot of fun to be a part of the cultural phenomenon that has become the Harry Potter legacy.