May 1st....that date used to have a whole different meaning to me. Frankly it used to scare the crap out of me. I would wake up on that day and sigh heavily. The arrival of May 1st means that my life is about to change big time. For roughly the next 6 months life is anything but normal. Don’t get me wrong, I obviously still enjoy what I do or I wouldn’t be here still but the arrival of May 1st means I probably won’t drive south of Bracebridge more than 6 times in the next 6 months, sad but true. It also means I will be sleeping with my phone on my bed because it usually rings in the middle of the night several times a season. I have to drive at least one person to the hospital every year because they injured themselves whilst partying hard, when they lost all motor skills and had some sort of fall with several stitches being the final outcome. I am not exactly proud when I arrive at the hospital and tell the nurse I went to high school with that another kid from Cleves has a party injury (the UPIs are the worst...Unidentified Party Injury...because I often haven’t put all of the pieces together about how the person got hurt)!!
Back in my day I don’t remember it being as hard core. I do very clearly remember watching one of my best friends fall off the bed because the beach chair she was sitting in...on the bed, folded up with her inside it and they both toppled off the side. No injuries just hysterical laughter mostly by me ...ahhhhhh to be a kid again but I digress. Now when I wake up on May 1st I don’t panic at all because I know that in the blink of an eye our spring conference season will be over and families will be arriving. In another blink the families leave, conference season has started up again and before you know it Thanksgiving Weekend is here. I cannot get over how fast the seasons fly by the older I get.
We now have over 15 walkie talkies to chat with each other and they are all over the property at any given time. Every year just before family season, I have a meeting with the bellhops and managers and remind them all to watch what they say to each other over the walkies because there are lots of ears listening. It isn’t exactly professional to hear a manager ask ‘his or her peeps to meet them at the Sagamo Centre’ I do smile when I hear one of the boys from out east say “Hey I needs your help boy where you at?” “No problem where you to?”
One of the best walkie talkie conversations I heard a couple of years ago went something like this... “Front Desk to Bellhop” “Go ahead Front Desk” “A Guest just came into the office to see if anybody had turned in a yellow sand pail that she left at the beach about an hour ago but we don’t have it here. The pail isn’t really the issue it is the clam that her child had found that was in the pail that we are concerned about” “I will head down to the beach right away and see if I can find it.........can you tell me what name the clam responds to?” Good one!
Without a doubt my favourite walkie talkie conversation of all time went as follows. I had my meeting with everybody on the first day of family season and about 10 minutes after they all left my office the entire property hears this....”Paul to Bellhop” (Paul was an Aussie bartender we had working for us for the season) “Go ahead Pauly” “Could you please bring a Carpet Muncher to the Club?” (Head on desk immediately) Everybody in the office instantly starts to laugh hysterically and I distinctly remember tears falling I was laughing so hard. What I didn’t know was is that’s what Aussies call ‘carpet sweepers‘. I didn’t have to deal with any irate Guests about hearing that so obviously there weren't any parents that had to explain to their kids what a ‘carpet muncher’ was. Thank God!!
The bed was very wobbley and so was I, and the deck chair, that I stold, was just not agreeable really. Good times Sandy. Good times! xo
ReplyDeleteOH DP I love that you just threw yourself under the bus!
ReplyDeleteHi Sandy, don't know if you remember this or not, but one year I broke my wrist at the annual end of summer "Turet Party". It would have been the summer of 1982 or 83. It happened at the "hall" and a bunch of us were dancing doing the can can and I fell and well, you can very well imagine the rest. I was pretty hammered and to boot my mom was there, so to save face I continued to party until the wee morning and quite frankly, it didn't hurt as much as the following morning. I was in housekeeping and had to get up very early the next day as it was labour day and I had to work. I got up, went to work and Marilyn covered for me the whole morning while I held in arm in place. Finally, I had to call my dad to come and get me and take me to the hospital - I was still drunk and boy was he not happy - many hours later I came home and do you think my dad would let me go to sleep - NOT!! I will never forget that night/day. Keep up the good work, I love your stories.
ReplyDeleteThanks Leanne! That was a great story that I had never heard... and you just proved my point!!! :)
ReplyDeleteHa! UPI ! I had one of those the summer of '90. Lets just say, trying to make it to Paignton House by bicycle for last call wasn't a good idea! I was bellhopping that year, and a separated shoulder bought me a week off. When I came back, I was on 'light duty' for about another week, and Sandy Jones got stuck with any of the 'heavy lifting' jobs. ...what a great summer!
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