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First day on the job stories

+3 HS
creekman's picture
June 21, 2016 at 8:37am
21 Comments

I have two worthy first day on the job stories.

I started working at Geauga Lake my freshman year in high school.  The first year I was a midway sweep - basically walked around the park and swept up cigarette butts and cleaned up vomit.  My first day after my sophomore year, I was a new ride operator and was assigned to the Big Dipper, the old historic wooden roller coaster, that still sadly sits there today, alone in a dilapidated closed park.  The day before we opened the park for the summer, I showed up and learned the in's and out's of the ride, how to perform maintenance and more importantly how to stop the old coaster as it entered the train station.  We practiced a few hours with a dew employees who got to ride the roller coaster over and over.
Fast forward to the next day when we opened up to the public,  We let the first coaster out and it flawlessly made it up the hill and cruised around the track..as the ride finished and the train entered into the station, we applied the manual brakes and the train never slowed down, cruised right thru the station and started back up the hill.  The riders panicked, the workers panicked.  This went on for three cycles when we finally stopped the train on the first hill  by shutting down the chain that carried the train up.  Three of us had to climb up the hill on a very narrow steps on either side of the track, and help each rider get out of the seat and walk backwards trying to keep the riders safe as the walked down.  We spent nearly an hour walking up and down the that first hill getting all the passengers off.  Then shut the ride down for several more hours to have maintenance help us figure out what was wrong.
Turns out, over the off season, the entire track was painted including the inside of the train station.  There was paint over spray on the tracks that elevated the coaster to slow it and eventually stop it.  Turns out all of the practice rides only had a few passengers, but when the coaster was weighed down -  full on the first ride, the brakes provided little resistance to slow it down.  I cant tell you how bad my legs were shaking - as I am not great with heights and I had to walk up the hill then backwards down the hill. I was so hot, and exhausted, a midway sweep had to come behind the ride and clean up my vomit that day.

Second story -

Went home for the summer following my freshman year at Ohio University.  My hometown, Solon, had opened a brand new Pizza Hut a few weeks before I got home.  I went in applied, got the job and was given a uniform and told to come back the next day and they would train me on the job.  All other workers there went through a few days/week training prior to opening.  So, I showed up for my first day and shadowed a few people all morning and afternoon.  As it was getting close to my quitting time, there was a rush of people into the restaurant.  I was told to make some "priazzo"  dough.  I had seen it done a dozen times that day, so I got the water temperature exactly where it needed to be, added the flour, yeast, water into the big industrial dough mixer, lowered the crank and turned it on.  Everything was perfect until I turned it on, as the speed of the mixer was set to high instead of low.  Within a second, I and the entire kitchen were covered in flour.  I spent the next hour humiliated, sweeping the kitchen and part of the seating area to clean it up.  Finally got to clock out, went out to my car and the battery was dead.  This was before cell phones, and I wasn't going back into the restaurant, so I walked about two miles home.  Never went back, still have the apron.

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