Life on the Skyride

The skyride at my lovely amusement park is hated more than the other rides. For some odd reason, people seem to lose the little amount of intelligence and common sense they had left the instant they step onto the platform. Chaotic is the best word to describe the day to day operations of the horizontal ski lift. Normal troubles include: customers stepping out of the queue gate too early, dropping shoes when getting on the chair (thus making me run after them to return it), attempting to bring water balloons, large umbrellas, giant beach bags and other potentially hazardous items (you name someone has tried to bring it), spitting on people below, bouncing in the chairs, smoking, and other general sitting difficulties. One day when my brother was working things got even more out of hand than normal: the skyride was held hostage. It was 6:30 pm and all was running relatively smoothly when a group of immature hick adults reached the front of the line. Being a sharp employee, my brother quickly noticed that their wristbands had expired a half an hour earlier, 6:00. Now it is park policy to let riders on a maximum of 10 minutes after wristbands expire, but 30 minutes is simply not going to happen. My brother then informs the lovely patrons that their wristbands have expired and if they wished to ride more rides that they needed to either purchase tickets or another wristband. This idea did not resonate very well with these big headed people. After an intense argument, they knew my brother would not budge so they played the supervisor card and cheated a little. Instead of moving towards the side so other people could get on the ride, as my brother calmly and rationally suggested, they decided it would be a good idea not to budge one single inch, essentially holding the ride hostage. Throughout this whole ordeal my brother is walking back and forth unloading the incoming riders and fighting with the stubborn rednecks in line. Finally after 20 minutes of the skyride being held hostage, the supervisor arrives to save the day. Unfortunately the office sent the nice one. Instead of calling in security and throwing their butts out of the park, nice Dwayne lets them all ride. Had it been any other supervisor, there is a strong possibility that those people would have been in jail. However that is just classic Dwayne, he's too nice. In another incident involving the skyride, while I was working it actually, Dwayne had a police report filed accusing him of assault and battery after he had confronted two girls about spitting on the skyride. He was very polite about it. After they had exited the car he called them to the center of the platform and kindly requested that they read the posted rules allowed to him. Their father was in the car behind. He was a very angry man. As soon as his feet touched the ground he was at poor Dwayne's throat yelling about how they were "his girls and it was his responsibility to punish." Kindly, the irate man was reminded that the girls were in Dwayne's park and that made it his responsibility. This made the man livid. Seething with unrestrained hatred, the dastardly villain spewed words that innocent little me cannot repeat. Finally, Dwayne gave up trying to talk to them reasonably and hid on the Ferris Wheel platform for a while. About three hours later he returned to ask if I remembered the events clearly enough to be a witness if it went to court. Unfortunately it never did. I'm rather disappointed because I think it would be very cool to be a witness....Have I mentioned how much I love my job?