Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Insolent little pukes
A few weeks ago, I was volunteering at the Iowa Indoor State Cup tournament that was being held at the ISU indoor football practice facility. This building is pretty sweet. It contains a full-sized football field with state-of-the-art artificial turf. The surface is made up of little bits of recycled rubber and individual "blades" of synthetic grass. It's completely porous with a drainage system underneath. As such, the ISU people don't allow any kind of drinks inside the bulding unless it's water. Anything else, if spilled, will get into the field and mold it all up.
Back to the tournament. I was a field marshal, which, simply put, means "take pop and gatorade away from people". First of all, you can't go anywhere in the building without seeing a sign that says "WATER ONLY" or "NO FOOD OR BEVERAGES", so my job should have been easy. Nope. We had a person reminding people of the rule as they came in, but we saw some kids sneek them in their bags. That's where I came in. I would make my rounds during a game and consistently find 2 or 3 bottles of contraband sitting out. I'd pick them up and toss them in a barrel. Not a problem until some high school kid started crying because I took his $1.50 bottle of gatorade. Then he starts *following* me as I head to the trash barrel. We had a nice argument about how I didn't care that he "didn't know" about the rules of the building and that I didn't care that he was "just leaving, anyway". He went back to his gear and I went to the trash barrel to dump it. A few minutes later, the same kid comes by to ask for his gatorade back. Uh, no. After the same argument gets him nowhere, he punctuates his disappointment by kicking his ball into the concession area.
I can't wait for the next indoor tournament... this weekend.
Back to the tournament. I was a field marshal, which, simply put, means "take pop and gatorade away from people". First of all, you can't go anywhere in the building without seeing a sign that says "WATER ONLY" or "NO FOOD OR BEVERAGES", so my job should have been easy. Nope. We had a person reminding people of the rule as they came in, but we saw some kids sneek them in their bags. That's where I came in. I would make my rounds during a game and consistently find 2 or 3 bottles of contraband sitting out. I'd pick them up and toss them in a barrel. Not a problem until some high school kid started crying because I took his $1.50 bottle of gatorade. Then he starts *following* me as I head to the trash barrel. We had a nice argument about how I didn't care that he "didn't know" about the rules of the building and that I didn't care that he was "just leaving, anyway". He went back to his gear and I went to the trash barrel to dump it. A few minutes later, the same kid comes by to ask for his gatorade back. Uh, no. After the same argument gets him nowhere, he punctuates his disappointment by kicking his ball into the concession area.
I can't wait for the next indoor tournament... this weekend.
I'm back!
I realized it had been a long time since I said anything when I discovered that people who had been referencing my blog site had taken it off their list. I hate to disappoint the 3 (including me) readers of my blog, so I'm back.
