I didn’t really think this was Pit-worthy, but worth sharing nonetheless.
So…I go into work today and everything is okie dokie…slow but overall not too bad. Until arouond 11:30 that is. I hear a loud rumbling noise accompanied by what sounds like very loud voices. I look up from my little register and see a HUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge crowd of people descending up on the food court. Tons of teenagers. Gaggles of gradeschoolers. An army of adults. All wanting to eat their lunch. I take a deep breath and mutter “merde” softly as they descend upon my eatery. There is so much noise I am forced to yell to be heard over the thronging masses. I am being yelled at because nobody can hear anything over the cacophony. For two solid hours, I serve these people, catering to their every whim.
It turns out they are from a church camp somewhere in the area (I never found out where) and brought ten busloads of children and adults to the mall. Not schoolbusloads…oh no…they managed to fill ten BIG bus loads (like Greyhound busses). There were easily 1,000 people in that group all wanting to eat at Sonic and then be set loose in the mall like young well…young wild things is the best way I can describe it. Tales from other retailers who visited me throughout the day brought stories of unruly church campers tearing through the mall destroying everything in sight whilst trying to convert everything and everyone in their path to The Way, The Truth and The Light. One mall security guard said he would gladly kick all their butts out, if not for the sheer numbers.
Eventually…after a few hours it settled down and they all left…I think. I didn’t see the busses in the parking lot as I left, so I assume they all went BACK where they came from, to molest the poor mallgoers no more with their tales of hellfire and brimstone, the religious tracts and cheap,shoddily made teeshirts saying “Jesus Saves”.
Hon, you work at a Sonic, so you can’t really be catering very hard because fast food just doesn’t have the scoper fore really creative employee torture. You ring 'em up, you hand 'em their burgers and fries. It’s not that complicated.
Now if you were a waitress in a decent restaurant, and all the Christian campers wanted substitutions on menu items, and if they made you recite the salad dressings for every single person, and if they sent back their steaks because they were underdone and then complained because they were too done, and if they had preschoolers banging the silverware, and then gave you lousy tips, *then * you’d have my sympathy.
Growing up when our band/church youth group went on a big trip we’d try to call ahead to wherever we were stopping and warn them that they were gonna get a bus full of people.
FWIW were I a restaurant owner I wouldn’t care who the massive throngs of customers were, what religion they practiced or where they were from. They could be the International Brotherhood of Worshippers of the Golden Mystical Unicorn, wouldn’t matter. I’d just be happy they were visiting MY establishment and giving me their money.
My city is home to a giant Jehovah’s Witness convention every year. They come, they spend money, they leave. We’re happy to see them every year because it means about 100 bucks per person, per day.
But didn’t those hours just fly by? I always grit my teeth when I see a huge crowd coming into my McDonald’s, but then I just get into a flow state and suddenly it’s two hours later and everyone’s full and happy.
Oh, and here I thought this was a thread about camping along the shore of a beautiful placid lake, and whilst enjoying the solitude and peace (and a small whisky & water), this group of loud obnoxious church groupies decides to unload in the campsite next to you and set up camp, singing loud, annoying songs and running around the campsite screaming and yelling, forcing you to pack up what you’d just set up and hike another 2 miles just to get away from them. :mad:
Not that that’s ever happened to me.
Tripler
Thank God I hadn’t pitched my tent yet. . .
Every year at this time, my hometown is temporarily home for a few thousand Church Of God families in motor homes, trailers, and tents. In between meetings and services, the COGgers mob the local drugstores, groceries, eateries, and strip joints. That’s right, the city’s two breast bars hire extra dancers for COGger week. Reportedly, COGgers drink a little more than the usual customers, they’re OK tippers, and they don’t get into fights. I’m trying to imagine the want ad for a “pretty Christian TT dancer.”
Sounds like we’re from the same town, AskNott. When I lived there, the locals couldn’t even go out to eat during that week, because every place in town was overflowing with the COG crowd.
Snoopy–I wish they’d been that considerate.:rolleyes:
gobear–have you ever worked fast food and had ONE adult trying to order for sixteen or seventeen kids who keep changing their minds every six seconds? By the time they get finished deciding what they want, the adult who is in charge can’t remember what they’ve ordered. Plus, each kids wants their hamburger done a seperate way and if you read it off wrong (even if you’ve typed in correctly), they start thowing a fit. It’s enough to drive one buggy.
