The most interesting experience Robin and I had last weekend was standing in line for a ride. During Fright Fest things are pretty packed and the lines were incredibly long. So we were just a little annoyed when a child of about twelve started pushing his way through line.
As irritating as something like that is, though, I never bother trying to stop linejumpers when they're just one person and/or young. If it is one person they're sitting next to someone who is already way up in line anyway. They're not taking up extra space on the train because if their friend rides alone the seat will just go empty. It doesn't change the wait time.
If they're young they're probably with a group of older people who said, "You go to the restroom/get drinks/throw away our trash/call mom and we'll hold you a place in line."
Growing up near Kings Island, where "line jumping is not a sporting event", but it sure happens alot, you learn to pick your battles.
Even so, Holly and I have definately blocked people from cutting. Sometimes it works, sometimes you get pushed into a wall. C.S. Lewis wrote that you can tell people have a natural law - just cut in line in the grocery and see how many people know that's wrong without anyone ever telling them. Lewis was a wise man, but he happens to be wrong.
Despite the fact that people are waiting two-plus hours to ride a ride they will let entire youth groups cut past them to where two people are holding a spot, without so much as a muttered, "Jerks."
A little while after the kid two large men wearing goofy hats cut in line to where their girlfriends were, about a row ahead of us. We glared at them and decided the next people to do that we would block from going through.
It'd probably been another half hour when the yelling started. A row back a man started yelling that he had called the park security and he just wanted them to know that they were going to get kicked out - they wouldn't even get to ride on the ride.
An arguement ensued that was comprised almost entirely of cussing. The line jumpers denied that they had done anything and the angry man declared that he had at least 50 witnesses. More cussing, mostly it didn't make sense. That's what happens when you have a vocabularly of five four-letter words. The main gist however was that either of them could take the other if only the other would get close enough. Most people were laughing, I mean, we were a captive audience and it was entertaining. I have to tell you; however, that standing directly between those two men - I was a little nervous.
Eventually the arguement ended leaving a hum of whispered conversations behind. Most people thought both the line jumpers and the angry man were terrible. I mean, I think it's brilliant that he called security, but why start a fight? Just let security come and do their thing.
Well, after a while security mosied on up. The line jumpers said they'd been there the whole time and security asked the boys right behind them if that was true. The boys said it was.
I don't know why those boys lied. They were being very friendly with the people who had cut in front of them - but it was still weird that they would lie about it. So I had to speak up.
"Sir, those boys are lying, the women were there the whole time, but the men cut in line."
Contrary to popular opinion I don't like confrontation. I know I started shaking and even now my heart beats a little faster just thinking about it. Robin spoke up too and then the angry man said, "That's right, just as her or her or him..." pointing to all the people around us.
Then line jumpers then accused the man of using racial slurs in the arguement and the security man said he'd have to leave since he'd done that. I had to speak up again, "He didn't use a racial slur, they both swore a lot, but there were no racial slurs."
Security told him he still had to come out the line and then the outraged line jumpers and their girlfriends started yelling that his wife and child had to come out of the line too. "He had a lady and a kid with him! They need to come out too!" I don't think they got pulled though and I don't think they should have been pulled. They weren't doing anything.
Some people around our age were whispering as they all got dragged out and sat on some benches, "That's right, but them all in close contact with each other, maybe a fist fight really will break out."
I just wanted those people to get kicked out. I didn't want them all up in my face if we happened to be in the same area later. For the rest of the afternoon though they were all sitting there with the security gaurd and I guess that was ok too.
As irritating as something like that is, though, I never bother trying to stop linejumpers when they're just one person and/or young. If it is one person they're sitting next to someone who is already way up in line anyway. They're not taking up extra space on the train because if their friend rides alone the seat will just go empty. It doesn't change the wait time.
If they're young they're probably with a group of older people who said, "You go to the restroom/get drinks/throw away our trash/call mom and we'll hold you a place in line."
Growing up near Kings Island, where "line jumping is not a sporting event", but it sure happens alot, you learn to pick your battles.
Even so, Holly and I have definately blocked people from cutting. Sometimes it works, sometimes you get pushed into a wall. C.S. Lewis wrote that you can tell people have a natural law - just cut in line in the grocery and see how many people know that's wrong without anyone ever telling them. Lewis was a wise man, but he happens to be wrong.
Despite the fact that people are waiting two-plus hours to ride a ride they will let entire youth groups cut past them to where two people are holding a spot, without so much as a muttered, "Jerks."
A little while after the kid two large men wearing goofy hats cut in line to where their girlfriends were, about a row ahead of us. We glared at them and decided the next people to do that we would block from going through.
It'd probably been another half hour when the yelling started. A row back a man started yelling that he had called the park security and he just wanted them to know that they were going to get kicked out - they wouldn't even get to ride on the ride.
An arguement ensued that was comprised almost entirely of cussing. The line jumpers denied that they had done anything and the angry man declared that he had at least 50 witnesses. More cussing, mostly it didn't make sense. That's what happens when you have a vocabularly of five four-letter words. The main gist however was that either of them could take the other if only the other would get close enough. Most people were laughing, I mean, we were a captive audience and it was entertaining. I have to tell you; however, that standing directly between those two men - I was a little nervous.
Eventually the arguement ended leaving a hum of whispered conversations behind. Most people thought both the line jumpers and the angry man were terrible. I mean, I think it's brilliant that he called security, but why start a fight? Just let security come and do their thing.
Well, after a while security mosied on up. The line jumpers said they'd been there the whole time and security asked the boys right behind them if that was true. The boys said it was.
I don't know why those boys lied. They were being very friendly with the people who had cut in front of them - but it was still weird that they would lie about it. So I had to speak up.
"Sir, those boys are lying, the women were there the whole time, but the men cut in line."
Contrary to popular opinion I don't like confrontation. I know I started shaking and even now my heart beats a little faster just thinking about it. Robin spoke up too and then the angry man said, "That's right, just as her or her or him..." pointing to all the people around us.
Then line jumpers then accused the man of using racial slurs in the arguement and the security man said he'd have to leave since he'd done that. I had to speak up again, "He didn't use a racial slur, they both swore a lot, but there were no racial slurs."
Security told him he still had to come out the line and then the outraged line jumpers and their girlfriends started yelling that his wife and child had to come out of the line too. "He had a lady and a kid with him! They need to come out too!" I don't think they got pulled though and I don't think they should have been pulled. They weren't doing anything.
Some people around our age were whispering as they all got dragged out and sat on some benches, "That's right, but them all in close contact with each other, maybe a fist fight really will break out."
I just wanted those people to get kicked out. I didn't want them all up in my face if we happened to be in the same area later. For the rest of the afternoon though they were all sitting there with the security gaurd and I guess that was ok too.
2 comments:
It's crazy who and what people will lie for/about, isn't it?
And that was crazy. However, from a ...media?... standpoint, it was interesting to see how quickly the fight grabbed the line's attention.
And then there's the eternal question: is it because the media taught us that that's what's interesting, or is the media simply reflecting what is already interesting to a godless society?
I don't know - we'd all be standing there for a while. It was a break from the monotony.
And I think the media's more reflective in this instance. I mean, long before there was television the Roman's amused themselves with fights to the death and for the intermission a man would come out, cut the loser's face off, and wear it like a mask and make fun of them. The first clowns.
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