First Day on the Job

Lucy, her brother Donnie and I went to Minute Maid Park on Saturday to watch the Astros. As it turned out we actually won a game; after a seven game losing streak, a 10 – 1 blow out was plenty of fun for the 41,000 folks in the stands. That’s not what I’m writing about though; something else got my attention, I’ll eventually get to that.

We got to the stadium plenty early because there was a give away promotion, Astros Blanket Day. The first 10,000 through the turn stiles got a free Astros Blanket to take home so, knowing it was going to be close to a sell out crowd we wanted to be there when they opened the gates. We’d purchased our tickets on line and had to pick them up at the Will Call window prior to the game.

There were lines at each gate that stretched pretty much around the block and so I had them get in line while I did my impersonation of a speed walker. Will Call was on the far side from where we started so I had to go clear on around the block, all the while noticing how many folks were standing in line, snaked into the street where several police officers where attempting to keep some sort of order.

The late afternoon sun had warmed things up into the mid 80’s; but with all my walking it felt more like the 90’s. I showed my ID and they handed me the tickets about the same time as the gates opened up. I put some extra step in my step, noticing that the lines were moving at a good clip and not wanting Lucy and Donnie to have to wait. I got back to where they were in plenty of time.

Lucy had her purse which had to be searched for hand grenades, machine guns and atomic bombs so Donnie and I went in, had our tickets scanned and were handed our free Astros Blankets. While we waited for Lucy, we noticed that the supply of free blankets was just about out. The lady handing out the blankets opened the last box of 30 as Lucy waved from just outside the turn stiles. I don’t know how many blankets were left in that box; but Lucy got her Astros Blanket and we made our way up to the nose bleed section where our seats were located. Actually, the view from up there is pretty good and we enjoyed every minute of the game. We were in section 422, row 6, seats 13,14 and 15 if you want to go over to the Minute Maid Park web site and take a digital peek at how it looks from up there. ( I’ll post a link in the title bar )

I inquired where I might purchase a canister of oxygen, jokingly, as we made it ever higher and the effects of my power walking tour began to take hold. Normally when we go to a game I hold off purchasing our soda until a couple of innings have been played; not so on Saturday.

It was Dr Pepper time as I asked for two large tourist trap specials in the fancy take home souvenir Astros/Coca Cola plastic cup. I’d called my banker prior to making the purchase and he wired me some cash as I waited in one of two lines to pay for the first mortgage payment on the fancy take home souvenir Astros/Coca Cola plastic cups.

The folks in front of me had handed the young woman at the cash register a plastic credit card; only thing was she couldn’t figure out how to slide the card through the magnetic reading device in order to complete the sale. After watching the ineptitude show for a couple of minutes I decided that I’d try my luck at the other cash register. There were three young women working the two registers, one of them was teaching the other two how to properly perform at what had to be their first day on the job.

I watched carefully as I explained that I wanted to pay cash for my two fancy take home souvenir Astros/Coca Cola plastic cups. The veteran cashier explained how to enter numbers, pointing to the keys on the cash register as if the other young woman had never seen such a contraption in all her years here on planet Earth. I kid you not:

“That’s one large drink, uh huh, now press it again”, “Hit total and look at how much it says to take.” A half minute or so went by as the young woman let the information given to her roll around in that empty head of hers. The blue lights showing the total amount of $9.50 flashed on the eye level display board.

“That will be $ 9.50.” I think she was waiting for her supervisor to pin an award on her lapel for having excelled on her first attempt at pushing the large drink button twice, the total button once and for being able to read the amount due display as an awkward smile appeared from out of the edge of despair.

I handed her a ten dollar bill, took my change and bit my tongue as I handed Lucy her Dr Pepper. I know there must be a reason why there is no “period” after the letters D and r in Dr Pepper; just like I wonder why they would hire some idiot who’d never used a cash register to work in an area where 41,000 hungry and thirsty folks were going to storm her position in the next few minutes. Maybe this is one of the mysteries of the universe that I will never understand. Am I being to hard on this next generation, the generation that will be voting in the next presidential election?