I'd like to swing the conversation back to the topic of stories of the park. Being that I was never "properly" a guest, all of my stories (and I have waaaayyy too many to share here) have to do with how the guests treated the employees. I have a lot of bad apple stories from VIPs being absolute d-bags to almost getting beat up by a guest, but I wanted to share one that stuck in my mind as one of the good ones.
Working at JP for over 4 yrs I've seen a lot of faces come and go but apparently I was a staple for some of our riders. I had a grandfather and grandson come talk to me one day and the grandson was really scared to ride. I talked him through the attraction and he finally decided to get on. I made sure I was waiting at unload for him to give him a thumbs up. Now mind you, I don't remember this. Seeing thousands of people daily can sometimes make things a blur, but apparently it left an impression. The next year they came back and I was working that day. The grandson tracked me down and told me who he was and that I made it fun for him. I said I'm glad I was able to help and continued on with my day not thinking too much about it. This happened the next year as well. At year 4 this young man asked for me at the Child Swap Entrance (as it was known back then). He wouldn't tell the ride op what it was about, only that he needed to talk to me specifically. I went out to see him and realized that this was the same boy I'd been seeing every year and watched grow up. We talked a bit and I asked where his grandfather was. He had passed away shortly after arranging their annual trip to USH. This young man had decided to make the trip anyway as a tribute to his grandfather. He had been at the park the previous day and didn't see me (it was my day off) so he came back for a second day. He asked me if I would ride with him in his grandfathers stead. I couldn't say no. I made sure that he got a picture of us going down the drop together.
I'm just glad JP is a water ride because there was more than ride water on my face that day.
Working at JP for over 4 yrs I've seen a lot of faces come and go but apparently I was a staple for some of our riders. I had a grandfather and grandson come talk to me one day and the grandson was really scared to ride. I talked him through the attraction and he finally decided to get on. I made sure I was waiting at unload for him to give him a thumbs up. Now mind you, I don't remember this. Seeing thousands of people daily can sometimes make things a blur, but apparently it left an impression. The next year they came back and I was working that day. The grandson tracked me down and told me who he was and that I made it fun for him. I said I'm glad I was able to help and continued on with my day not thinking too much about it. This happened the next year as well. At year 4 this young man asked for me at the Child Swap Entrance (as it was known back then). He wouldn't tell the ride op what it was about, only that he needed to talk to me specifically. I went out to see him and realized that this was the same boy I'd been seeing every year and watched grow up. We talked a bit and I asked where his grandfather was. He had passed away shortly after arranging their annual trip to USH. This young man had decided to make the trip anyway as a tribute to his grandfather. He had been at the park the previous day and didn't see me (it was my day off) so he came back for a second day. He asked me if I would ride with him in his grandfathers stead. I couldn't say no. I made sure that he got a picture of us going down the drop together.
I'm just glad JP is a water ride because there was more than ride water on my face that day.
