Drama at the Fort!
May. 25th, 2009 05:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beboots
So, if you've been following along, I now have a job at Fort Edmonton. And it is glorious. :D The people there are amazingly nice and enthusiastic, for the most part, and the job itself is very fun. I wouldn't mind if it consumed my life. ;)
First off, the weather during opening weekend was abysmal. There was snow. Yes, snow, during the May long weekend. D: And of course, I was working in a carnival that was interpreting the 1926 season, and of course skirts had climbed up higher during the post-war era. I think that we had it the worst of the lot: at least the other streets had long skirts that went down to their ankles and high collars... and stoves and campfires to huddle around. And buildings. Yes, buildings are nice. We were in our game booths - thin walls with no fronts - and were rotating in and out of the carousel building, which is at least heated... kind of. We lasted almost half an hour before the costumer's assistants came by with a trunkful of historically accurate winter coats/wool sweaters.
We also have a Ferris Wheel! It's run by seperate people, hired by maintenance. But they're all super nice! Just this past Sunday, I got to ride the Ferris Wheel on paid company time - and we're allowed to, because we have to help out the Ferris Wheel guys. :) They needed me to balance out the wheel so it would run smoothly and so a little girl could ride it. I got to speak with this like eight-year-old girl on the history of Ferris Wheels, on the lovely weather, etc., while we were riding, so I even fit in some interpretation!
See, the problem with the Midway is that once people walk into the area, the little part of their brain that was telling them that they were in a museum (Fort Edmonton is technically a "living museum") switches over to "paying customer" mode. D: So they're less interested in hearing about the history of carnivals than they are in just playing the games and waiting in lines. So we do what's termed "guerilla interpretation" - where we sneakily jump in with random history facts as we go about our jobs as carnies. Like, after a guy fails at hidding the bell at the High-Striker (one of those strong man machines, where you swing a mallet and see if you can ring the bell), I tell him how crooked carnies would have gaffed (fixed) the whole thing way back when. Oh, and I might throw in an explanation on the origin of the phrase "close, but no cigar" as well.
It's easier on the carousel, actually. That thing is a work of art, with gorgeous hand-carved horses. Sometimes I only get as far as "if you look above your heads, you'll see a plaque with the name of your horse!" (because kids often want to know this), but other times, if I have interested people (mainly adults) I can tell them about the different styles of horses, the reason why the armoured horse doesn't go up and down, what a lead horse is, what and why the horses have romance and money sides, the history of carousels in general, etc.,etc. :3 I love working the carousel. Also, if I talk on the microphone, I talk over the music and it cuts out, and believe me, you can only take so much chipper organ music all day... ;)
Other than that... drama! Someone broke into Adelle the costumer's last week and sprayed all of the remaining costumes with a fire hydrant. They left a note that said "Don't woorry". D: The spelling of the note and the nature of the prank/vandalism says teenage boy, but you had to know where these costumes were held, so that says an inside job... D: She and her assistants have been cleaning this irritating residue off of the costumes all week. And this was the first year that they had been ahead of schedule and had actually finished costumes for everyone! Some of the volunteers can't come in just yet because they won't be clothed, but most of us paid interpreters already had their costumes in our separate changerooms, so... yeah. At least we're okay.
There's also drama with the volunteer carvers, the ones who carved the horses of the carousel. They're mostly older/elderly men, who use the Midway lunchroom all year round for the two or so days a week that they come in to work on... carving stuff. It's technically our lunchroom, as we're the paid employees, but they're clearly more valuable to the Fort, overall (we're expendable). However, as we're the employees, the company is legally obligated to provide us with a lunchroom. BUT the carvers are very possessive of the lunchroom and were really pissed last year when it was "trashed" by the midway people. They've been leaving up passive-aggressive signs, like, "This kitchen is for those who can keep it clean. Others are not welcome. Signed, those who can."
And we've been told numerous times to keep it clean! Fair enough, we have. We've been washing dishes, putting them away, sweeping up crumbs, putting away garbage, etc. And yet, they still complain about us "trashing" the place (for "trashing", read "using"). D: They actually yelled at poor little Brianna, who is in eleventh grade and is a tiny, vulnerable looking sort of girl, threatening to divide the kitchen in half - with the fridge on their side, of course. D: Well, when my boss and the other supervisors heard about this, they were livid, because they knew that we had been more than respectful. We all know that they're full of bullshit.
It seems they spoke to the carvers, and I think that they realize that they went too far. And yesterday, new signs appeared in the lunchroom, phrased much more positively, with a smiley face and everything. I thought "oh, this is wonderful! They're improving!" and then I learned that Leslie (my boss) had put them there to replace the passive-aggressive signs. D:
Speaking of the lunchroom (I'm almost done this post, I swear, but I'm so enthusiastic about this place), we have a whiteboard with "things we need", like, dish soap, more dust pans, etc. Someone wrote in marker the other day "Fez, tinier fez, monkey, music box". I lol'd. ;)
Oh, and Jimmy, one of the drama guys (who do puppet shows and other things) accidentally left his infant daughter's pacifier in the kitchen the other day, so someone put it on the counter... with a piece of paper underneath it. On that paper was written a girl's name, and something like "RIP: carousel victim #6". ;) I couldn't stop giggling.
Just to clarify: yes, the Ferris Wheel (and the Carousel) are safe, and go through many maintenance checks, and little kids like that wouldn't be allowed on them. This was a joke.
A very awesome one.
That's just how we do things here at Fort Edmonton.
Oh, and soon enough I'll post a photograph of myself in each of my two 1920s outfits. Eventually.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-26 04:23 pm (UTC)D: Why would someone do that to the costumes??
*headdesk* Can someone tell the grumpy lunchroom carvers that the carnival workers this year are not the same as last year's? (I assume, anyway.)
no subject
Date: 2009-05-26 04:28 pm (UTC)And yes, when you come to visit, I shall treat you to lovely rants about carnival history. :3 It shall be epic.
Yes, we're pretty much all new employees than the ones from last year, minus one guy, Chris. They're crotchety old men, and see us as young, snotty midway workers, and lump us all together, I think. I dunno, every time I see them (which is only like, once or twice a week, so they're not even here that often), I always try to say "good morning" or "good afternoon" and throw in a "how are you?" and they seem to react in a friendly way, so... D:
no subject
Date: 2009-05-26 06:50 pm (UTC)