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Hello all, been a while since i posted(due mainly to the fact that i havent had a job in 6 months). Anywho, last summer i worked at a small waterpark in the small town i live in. It was an ok job as my coworkers were all pretty cool people. The managers.....different story. Anyway, here are a few things that still stick out in my mind.
What do you mean "No Ice?!?!?!"
Ok, so, as most of us know, during the summer, it gets pretty gosh darn warm. Well, the concession stand at the water park was very small and cramped. So much so, that 2 people could work in there semi-comfortably. Any more than that, and you had to shimmy, crawl, and grapple just to get around. This small cramped space is where we kept our soda machine. Through the early part of the season, it worked fine, no problems. Now, mid July-august was a different story. The temp. here got up to around 85-90 degrees. In the concession stand, it was more like 95-100 seeing as there was absolutley ZERO ventillation in there, save for the door and the concession window. Matter of fact, it got so hot in there at one point, that it caused our refrigerator to go haywire. Anywho, to recap. Small space+hot temps outside=hotter temp inside small space. Well, you can imagine that being the only public swimming area in this small town, and the weather being hot, we were pretty swamped. Now, this little soda machine (the standard 8-tap+ice type) handled things pretty well.....usually. The hot temps inside the stand made it so the poor machine couldn't produce enough ice. We had a tech come in and look at it a few times, not much difference in the working order of the thing. Anyway, most of our customers were pretty understanding when we explained why we couldn't give ice. There were some that just made me want to band my head on the counter until the voices stopped. They acted as if it was our fault that the machine couldn't handle the heat. If you're so damn hot, GET IN THE DAMN POOL. THAT'S WHY ITS THERE!
My kid ain't gonna drown here, dammit
Ok, little background for this one. There are 3 water slides at this park. You must be 48 inches tall or taller to ride them, this is due to safety reasons. Smaller kids can get turned around in the slide and get hurt. One of the jobs assigned to a non-lifeguard squib (as i was) was the measuring stick. Basically, we got to sit in a crappy little folding chair at the bottom of the slide and make sure everyone that wanted to ride was tall enough. This was, hands down, the most boring position to be stuck on. I got to know this very well....but thats another story. Anywho, one day, a saturday i believe, we had just opened up, and you can guess where i was stationed for my shift. Well, the first people to come in came to the slides. It was a man who was very loud, obnoxious, and just generally rude, and his son. Now, he came the long was and i could tell that this guy was a prick just hearing him talk. (He was cursing very loudly and walkin around like he owned the place.) Well, mr. high and mighty brought his kid over to be measured. Now, i usually dont fret over obnoxious people, but i had to deal with this guy now. He was breathing down my neck, and i could tell he was the kind of guy who doesnt like being told "no". So like i said, this guy is breathing down my neck while i'm trying to do my job. I geniunely thought the kid was tall enough, but he had floaties on (water wings) so i informed the father that he would have to remove them before i would allow him to slide. Of course the guy argued with me, but i stood firm as the water wings would get caught and the child could be seriously injured. Anyway, we go through all this and the kid decides he wants to go down the toilet bowl slide. (enclosed slide that concludes with a large open funnel-type thing that you make several orbits around before dropping into an 8 ft. deep water well area. The guy decides he's going to do to the water well and catch his kid. We have a lifegaurd stationed there, so this is not only unnecessary, but against our policy. Noone is allowed in the well except for after they've ridden and our exiting the slide. HE argues with the lifegaurd (who i felt bad for because she was a very nice girl) and she eventually gives in because as i sad, the guy is a prick. Well, they go to another part of the park and things start to be normal again, when i see my favorite manager (she was the only one who was ever nice to me at all) heading my way with prick and son in tow. Turns out the kid was an inch or two too short, so my manager gave me a very brief and stern talking-to and i had to sign a discipline report because of course i got in trouble. Weird part is, i have absolutely NO FRIGGING CLUE why she brought them back there to have the kid re-measured. My only guess is that the dumb shit dad raised a fuss about something else which led to the re-measure. Anyway, thanks for getting me in trouble, you obnoxious asshole.
What do you mean "No Ice?!?!?!"
Ok, so, as most of us know, during the summer, it gets pretty gosh darn warm. Well, the concession stand at the water park was very small and cramped. So much so, that 2 people could work in there semi-comfortably. Any more than that, and you had to shimmy, crawl, and grapple just to get around. This small cramped space is where we kept our soda machine. Through the early part of the season, it worked fine, no problems. Now, mid July-august was a different story. The temp. here got up to around 85-90 degrees. In the concession stand, it was more like 95-100 seeing as there was absolutley ZERO ventillation in there, save for the door and the concession window. Matter of fact, it got so hot in there at one point, that it caused our refrigerator to go haywire. Anywho, to recap. Small space+hot temps outside=hotter temp inside small space. Well, you can imagine that being the only public swimming area in this small town, and the weather being hot, we were pretty swamped. Now, this little soda machine (the standard 8-tap+ice type) handled things pretty well.....usually. The hot temps inside the stand made it so the poor machine couldn't produce enough ice. We had a tech come in and look at it a few times, not much difference in the working order of the thing. Anyway, most of our customers were pretty understanding when we explained why we couldn't give ice. There were some that just made me want to band my head on the counter until the voices stopped. They acted as if it was our fault that the machine couldn't handle the heat. If you're so damn hot, GET IN THE DAMN POOL. THAT'S WHY ITS THERE!
My kid ain't gonna drown here, dammit
Ok, little background for this one. There are 3 water slides at this park. You must be 48 inches tall or taller to ride them, this is due to safety reasons. Smaller kids can get turned around in the slide and get hurt. One of the jobs assigned to a non-lifeguard squib (as i was) was the measuring stick. Basically, we got to sit in a crappy little folding chair at the bottom of the slide and make sure everyone that wanted to ride was tall enough. This was, hands down, the most boring position to be stuck on. I got to know this very well....but thats another story. Anywho, one day, a saturday i believe, we had just opened up, and you can guess where i was stationed for my shift. Well, the first people to come in came to the slides. It was a man who was very loud, obnoxious, and just generally rude, and his son. Now, he came the long was and i could tell that this guy was a prick just hearing him talk. (He was cursing very loudly and walkin around like he owned the place.) Well, mr. high and mighty brought his kid over to be measured. Now, i usually dont fret over obnoxious people, but i had to deal with this guy now. He was breathing down my neck, and i could tell he was the kind of guy who doesnt like being told "no". So like i said, this guy is breathing down my neck while i'm trying to do my job. I geniunely thought the kid was tall enough, but he had floaties on (water wings) so i informed the father that he would have to remove them before i would allow him to slide. Of course the guy argued with me, but i stood firm as the water wings would get caught and the child could be seriously injured. Anyway, we go through all this and the kid decides he wants to go down the toilet bowl slide. (enclosed slide that concludes with a large open funnel-type thing that you make several orbits around before dropping into an 8 ft. deep water well area. The guy decides he's going to do to the water well and catch his kid. We have a lifegaurd stationed there, so this is not only unnecessary, but against our policy. Noone is allowed in the well except for after they've ridden and our exiting the slide. HE argues with the lifegaurd (who i felt bad for because she was a very nice girl) and she eventually gives in because as i sad, the guy is a prick. Well, they go to another part of the park and things start to be normal again, when i see my favorite manager (she was the only one who was ever nice to me at all) heading my way with prick and son in tow. Turns out the kid was an inch or two too short, so my manager gave me a very brief and stern talking-to and i had to sign a discipline report because of course i got in trouble. Weird part is, i have absolutely NO FRIGGING CLUE why she brought them back there to have the kid re-measured. My only guess is that the dumb shit dad raised a fuss about something else which led to the re-measure. Anyway, thanks for getting me in trouble, you obnoxious asshole.
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