Where to begin...
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Hi, my name is (obviously) David and for four years of my life I was an underling in the Merchandise Department at Department 44 Section 550, or more specifically known as WaterWorks Merchandise or Boomerrang Bay Merchandise. For 3 years of that life (the WW era), I was graced with working around the following structure:
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If you are wondering, yes that is a huge, major storm rolling in, and boy did it suck. I do not know how I was not struck by lightning during that storm.
NOTE: All photos taken on what was supposed to be the last day of 2003 operation for WaterWorks, or the last day WaterWorks was supposed to exist.
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Here is a picture of that storm again, and to the right of the photo you can see my flagship store and its broken sign: Trader Jake's Supplies. So, if those of you would wonder where my screen name came from, now you know. I was essentially Trader Jake. So, it was a pity when Boomerang Bay changed TraderJake's to Mic's. Damn them for having to theme everything to Crocodile Dundee.
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Here is the inside of my store. This store kept the Merchandise Department making a sizeable profit. Everybody needs towels and swimsuits.
More Store Photos:
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This sign was my mantra:
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Be sure to go buy food!
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That storm... it rained a lot, and we felt like having fun.
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If you look on the ground you will see that the store floor floods. We loved squeeging the floor. I was really lucky though that I didn't get electrocuted, as I was probably 10 feet from a lightning strike while standing in water. Not a good combination. But luckily, I didn't die.
This is me. That's me holding the broken part of the store sign in my stockroom. I had to get a photo of that before I left.
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My other store, On Shore / Matilda's
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I was lucky, the day before I took that photo we had a lot of nuns come in to work and they successfully inventoried the entire store in one day. Yay for that.
On Shore's Stockroom / Location Office
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It's so spacious, I love it.
It would be impossible to successfully run any operation without an effective management team, and in 2003 and 2004 I was blessed with extremely effective teams. Here is the 2003 WaterPark Merchandise Management Team:
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I'm 6'0", and I am the smallest person in that photo. Sigh.
Well, that is a glimpse into 4 years of my life, because well, working at amusement park, especially in management will consume your soul and you will become a slave to the system. My friends can vouch for the fact that they never saw me except for the one time I was sent "on vacation" in 2004. Nothing quite like going to Cedar Point for 3 days and then returning to be sent "on vacation." They think being sent "on vacation" is a terrible punishment, but I got to sleep in and to the Red's Game with friends. But that is a story I will not go into. You make a lot of friends working at an amusement park, and I made quite a few friends. I guess you have to when you never get to see friends outside of the park. As such, I spent many nights at Steak n Shake with friends reminiscing about how shitty the day was at work, and how we wished certain upper managers would fall off the face of the earth. It was a lot of fun, and with each passing year since I stopped working at the Park I find that I still miss it, ever so slightly.
So, do I like theme parks? Of course I did. I started working at PKI because I loved the park. My vacations were spent at Cedar Point, which is
the best Amusement Park in the World. You don't think so? Well too bad, since the Golden Ticket awards were invented Cedar Point has always won the award for best Amusement Park in the world. I also really liked Holiday World. Free pop, parking, and sunscreen, coupled with a world class waterpark and three awesome rollercoasters make for an amazing experience. Also, the owner of the park greeted me when I was there, and that was cool.
Too bad I have not visited PKI since I stopped working there at the end of 2004. That experience made me slightly bitter about the park, and I hope everyone in upper management in Merchandse minus two people get fired. Sorry, I am a hateful person.
Well, that is all, I hope you enjoyed that story.
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