Most surreal public service experience

[voguevixen]

The "these are a few of my favorite lies" http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=518341 thread made me wonder about what is the most surreal experience you had while working with the public?

For me it was when I worked running a somewhat hi-brow art theatre. People would gripe about the temperature of the bottled water, what the popcorn was popped in, if they should put a quarter in the meter or not or if the Department of Parking and Traffic REALLY came around. (JESUS! It's a QUARTER!) The fact that the theater had no A/C (even though the city temp never rose above 70 twice a year.) Whether the water cup I gave them for *free* water from the fountain was a rip or not, etc etc etc. It was endless.

One night after an unusually busy take (nearly a full house) we were setting up for the next show and someone came to the concession stand to get something to eat and said "oh say - did you know a rat just ran up the middle of the screen?" We (myself and the assistant manager completely froze) and said "no - really?" and he said "Yeah - it was wild! It went "woooop! right up the middle!" and he went back into the theatre and never said anything else about it. We both took stations at the register for refunds and the door with passes waiting for someone to complain AND NO ONE SAID ANYTHING!!!! We couldn't believe it!!! I am the least uptight person in the world and I would be freakin' at that.

Can you beat that?

[NinetyWt]

Perhaps he was the only one who saw it. :)

I've had all kinds of strange and wonderful experiences with people.

One time we were replacing residents' driveways after a storm drain construction project. This one lady insisted that hers hadn't been poured correctly, that it wouldn't drain. The contractor called me for help explaining the situation to the lady. When I arrived he was standing there while she yapped at him about the construction of the driveway, telling him it was flat and wouldn't drain. In exasperation he says "If you don't believe me, ask her, she's the engineer!".

The lady turns to me and says "Well I'm an engineer too!!"

I exchange looks with the contractor. We both know that the lady is a schoolteacher.

Trying to defuse the situation, I say to her, "We've checked the slope with a surveyor's level, ma'am. The driveway is sloping correctly to the street".

She says "You can't tell me that! I can see that it won't drain!".

I said, "Ma'am, we checked it with the instrument."

She then says "Well, I can see better than that damn instrument can !!".

:dubious:

At that point, her husband arrived home and coaxed her into the house, apologizing and saying "Sometimes she gets carried away".

[voguevixen]

Perhaps he was the only one who saw it. :)


Well we *knew* that wasn't the case because we did hear the collective *gasp* from the audiance. (One of the hazzards of being a small theatre was being very, very close to the audiance at all times.)

I just thought it was so bizarre that they thought I was supposed to control all fluctuations of the universe (tempature, dampness, loudness, etc) as well as the minutea of econimics "Don't you think seniors have just as much a right to a discount as children?" yes I do! NONE! Do you want to fist fight me on it grandma? Things that were totally out of my hands! Please to be writing my company? PLEASE!