Summer Employment Part 1

I named this part one because I have more stories than I want to put in one post.

I have had the joyous experience of working at an amusement park one summer when I was in college. Ever since I worked there I’ve wondered why it’s called that. There are only a few amusements for the employees, and a lot of people get grumpy when they have to follow the rules. Drat safety. It always ruins the fun.

I was a ride operator. Most of the time that meant I checked lap bars on the roller coasters. It is a rule that the first occupied seats and the last occupied seats have to have two people. This is a safety precaution.

My first day on the job there were two of us checking lap bars, one on each side. The other fellow somehow missed the fact that the last seat on his side was empty. (I should have noticed it too in all actuality.) The coaster started up the lift and the operator noticed the empty seat. Because I was over eighteen I got to climb up the little staircase on the side, climb over the fellow in the back seat, secure myself in the empty seat, and ride. Luckily the train wasn’t that high up on the lift.

A few hours later, the train got stuck at the top of the lift. Once again, because I was over eighteen, I got to climb the little stairs all the way to the top. There was a guardrail, but not really. For someone terrified of heights, I’d rather be safely secured in the stuck train than standing on the platform over a hundred feet in the air, reassuring everyone. Not my idea of a great job.

I worked long days and as everyone who goes to amusement parks knows, there is the same speech. “Please keep your arms and legs inside the car at all times. Do not stand up. And enjoy your ride.” Just imagine how repetitive that gets. What gets even more repetitive are all the customers who ask, “Does that ever get old?”

Really? They have to ask? We say it every time even if we’ve seen them on the ride a dozen times already.

I think I’ve mentioned earlier that I like to talk in my sleep and that occasionally I hallucinate. That summer was terrible. I would get home at midnight and wake up at three in the morning. My brain would think I was at work so I would sit up in bed and say the stupid line, over and over, and over. At about four I would realize I was at home and not at work and would try to go back to sleep until seven when I would get up and go to work.

It is amazing what people do when they think they are alone. One ride I worked was a haunted house. Just so you know there are normally employees in the back checking on customers to make sure they don’t do anything stupid. The employees stay out of sight but they can still see you. I was running the front of the ride, where I say the blasted speech when one of the supervisors came up. He asked to run it for a while. As a young couple got into the car, my supervisor calmly said. “Welcome, keep your arms and legs inside the car at all times. And remember this is where you bring your family, not make them. Enjoy your ride.”