Rain Price will never forget the first day of his sophomore year of high school. On the bus, packed with classmates from his suburban Utah school, Rain peered out the window, mortified."The school bus for the first time ever came down our street this year," explains Rain’s dad, Dale. "Later I overheard him talking to his mother, 'Mom, don't let Dad go out there again.' What a challenge."
So it began. Since the fall, Dale waved at his son in 180 different outlandish costumes. The second day of school he wore a football helmet and jersey, and in the months that followed he opened the front door dressed as a blushing bride, a superhero, a Star Trek fan, Michael Jackson, and a giant chicken. One day
he even lugged an old toilet bowl onto the street and sat on it reading a newspaper, stopping to wave as the bus rolled by."The first day of high school I have my dad waving at the bus," Rain said. "It was really embarrassing. But the last couple of months it turned into fun and entertainment."
The father of three, a stay-at-home dad, raided the family’s Halloween costume collection, borrowed outfits from neighbors, and managed to spend under $50 over the year to make his son’s bus ride the highlight of the day. To preserve the memories, his wife, Rochelle, photographed each day's outfit and posted it on their blog called waveatthebus.blogspot.com.
Dale developed a system. His son left to catch the bus at 7:10 A.M. Then he had 4 minutes to transfor
m. Sometimes his son, Riot, a second grader, joined in the fun. On day 26, he played Batman to his dad’s Robin.On the last day of school, Dale gave Rain a final send-off dressed as a "peg-leg" pirate, an alter-ego he's reinvented throughout the year, as a nod to his own prosthetic leg.
No one envisioned the notoriety that would come. They have been contacted by major TV networks, both in the United States and abroad. Their phone rings many times an hour with requests for appearances or interviews, or congratulations from those who have seen them.
"At the begin
ning we had 53,000 hits on our website," Price said, referring to when the blog started getting media attention. "We thought that was good, but now it has grown to 5.6 million. There are so many comments in other languages.""Some people have commented that Rain will need therapy for years," Price said. "We put a note that people could contribute to his therapy fund/college fund as a joke. Some people have actually used it and said they couldn't contribute much, but were putting in two or three bucks."
Rochelle, Rain's mother, is putting it in a special account to use for his college education.
Dale has b
een advised to contact a public relations firm and define his goals - television appearances, books or something else. However, he's not interested and expects the interest to decrease."If I do this, what does that do to our life as a family?" he said. "If I happen to be on the road a lot, I don't want to lose the closeness that we currently have. I don't know how to balance it. I don't know where the middle is.."
Despite all the fun and encouragement, Dale said he doesn't plan on doing again next year.
"I will sleep like a baby the first day of school," he said.
The Prices 180 outfits in 53 seconds
