One of the things that I love about the Garden Walk are the fringe activities that can be found on any given street. There are endless yard sales, garden parties, lemonade stands and so forth. Today I came across one of the more unexpected activities to date – a kissing booth. Christian (photo) and friends had set up shop on Richmond and were creating quite a stir when I found them. The group told me that this was their second year ‘in business’ and that smooching sales were brisk (as they held up a jar with about ten $1 bills inside). “We do it for fun,” they told me. “We even have a website.”
The entire kissing booth scene is pretty hysterical. It’s also fairly straightforward. Christian waits patiently while his friends egg passersby on to cough up a dollar for a good cause. The good cause? I’m pretty sure that the dollars raised go toward beer money – the beer most likely helps Christian lose his inhibitions. Some of the props that also help to pull together the kissing operation are a bottle of antiseptic oral rinse, ChapStick, a privacy curtain and Christian’s necktie. I asked the group if there were any ladies available for male passersby, and I was told that there were not, though they might add a pretty puckerer next year. I threw a dollar into the jar and passed on the kiss. That means that some unsuspecting soul is going to get a freebie – that could be you if you’re heading down into the heart of the Garden Walk.
Directions to the kissing booth are available on the website.