![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
On the Night Shift...
Nov. 22nd, 2008 07:54 pmIt's Day 22 of NaBloPoMo, and I haven't missed a day yet. ::touches wood:: The real surprise is that there's only been one day where I totally couldn't think of anything to write about. Until now, anyway. I got nothin', so today you get a story. This really did happen to me on a job I had about 18 years ago.
Back in the late '80s and early '90s, there was a series of novelty toys based on sound detection. Remember the dancing Coke cans? They looked like real Coke cans wearing little headphones and they would react to sounds by moving in time with them. Play music, and the little Coke cans would bop along to the beat. There were also other types of dancing cans, and other plastic items like potted flowers that would react to sound by turning towards it.
During my summer break from college in 1990, I worked as a security guard for a very large amusement park. I chose to work the midnight shift because that shift got paid extra. One of the duties for security staff on the night shift was to visit every single souvenir stand, food stand, gift shop, restaurant, and arcade to make sure the money had been collected from the cash registers and coin slots and turned over to Accounting.
One night shortly after I started, I was sent out to check the gift shops at the front of the park. I had never been in those particular stores before and didn't know what they sold. Due to the layout of the stores (they were long and narrow) and the way they were locked up at night, I had to go in the back door, walk the entire length of the store to the register, then walk all the way through the store again and out the back door. Well, I unlocked the door, flicked on the lights, and a hundred plastic potted sunflowers all turned around and stared at me. It was the single most bizarre thing I had ever seen. As I walked the length of the main aisle to check the register, all the plastic sunflowers turned in their plastic pots to watch me go, and then turned to watch me walk all the way back again. Have you ever had to walk the entire length of a store with a hundred plastic potted sunflowers staring holes in your back? They were even wearing little sunglasses to make it perfectly clear they were staring at me.
I hated that store.
Back in the late '80s and early '90s, there was a series of novelty toys based on sound detection. Remember the dancing Coke cans? They looked like real Coke cans wearing little headphones and they would react to sounds by moving in time with them. Play music, and the little Coke cans would bop along to the beat. There were also other types of dancing cans, and other plastic items like potted flowers that would react to sound by turning towards it.
During my summer break from college in 1990, I worked as a security guard for a very large amusement park. I chose to work the midnight shift because that shift got paid extra. One of the duties for security staff on the night shift was to visit every single souvenir stand, food stand, gift shop, restaurant, and arcade to make sure the money had been collected from the cash registers and coin slots and turned over to Accounting.
One night shortly after I started, I was sent out to check the gift shops at the front of the park. I had never been in those particular stores before and didn't know what they sold. Due to the layout of the stores (they were long and narrow) and the way they were locked up at night, I had to go in the back door, walk the entire length of the store to the register, then walk all the way through the store again and out the back door. Well, I unlocked the door, flicked on the lights, and a hundred plastic potted sunflowers all turned around and stared at me. It was the single most bizarre thing I had ever seen. As I walked the length of the main aisle to check the register, all the plastic sunflowers turned in their plastic pots to watch me go, and then turned to watch me walk all the way back again. Have you ever had to walk the entire length of a store with a hundred plastic potted sunflowers staring holes in your back? They were even wearing little sunglasses to make it perfectly clear they were staring at me.
I hated that store.
