Petty Blue

That was the name of the paintjob on Richard Petty’s personal car that I worked next to, last night. It turns out that I got my wish, and was assigned to the showroom floor for the evening. The info booth I was at was positioned directly between Richard Petty’s car and another Nascar that was covered with autographs and said Miller Cup on the side. I was working the booth with another girl who was new- apparently someone dropped out of the convention so the temp agency literally called her at the last minute and asked if she could be there within an hour. But even though she had no training or even any kind of advance notice that she’d be working a car convention (she barely had time to even take a shower, and had been lounging around in her PJ’s when she got the call), she was very well suited to this assignment, considering that she restores cars. I’ll call her Angie for the sake of this post.

I didn’t quite know what to make of her, however. She was definitely very outgoing and chatty with all the guests that came by our info booth- but to the extreme. Most of the sponsor booths were giving away free things like shirts, duffel bags and hats, etc. Every time she would see someone walking past with something she wanted, she would start calling out to people walking by to go and get one for her. A few times I told her to just go ahead and go find the booths and get her goodies if she wanted- I don’t think we’re necessarily pinned down to the info booth we were assigned to, and I didn’t mind if she went wandering. I’m pretty sure we are not supposed to be soliciting the guests and vendors for handouts, though.

Angie also claimed to know everyone- and I do mean everyone. During random chats with guests that happened by, she revealed that she personally knows the mortician that embalmed Marilyn Monroe, and that he kept some of her hair and nail clippings, which she got to touch. She claimed to personally know where John Gotti was buried- and the man who put him there. And the kicker was when a girl and her boyfriend came up to our booth with a little model car of the General Lee that Bo Duke had autographed when she was just a little girl.. she said she was hoping that he’d be there at the convention so he could autograph the hood of the car. “Oh, hmmm..” Said Angie. “He didn’t call me. He ALWAYS calls me when he’s going to be in town.”

At that point I had to turn around and walk away so she wouldn’t see how hard I was rolling my eyes.

One guest seemed to be particularly fond of Angie, though. An older gentleman (We’ll call him George) kept coming by the booth to blatantly flirt with her- it was kind of funny to watch. He seemed like a nice guy- he had a very strong accent (I couldn’t quite place) and was very friendly.. said he was 66 years old and had been coming to these events for years. He knew a lot of the regular employees that worked there. He was really hitting on Angie and kept saying how her lips were so kissable, etc. He was trying to get her phone number and wanted to know where she was staying, when she got off work, etc. It was during one of his visits by our booth that all the conversations about Marilyn Monroe and John Gotti came up. George was talking about how much he loves and admires Marilyn Monroe, and that he has a picture of her hanging up in his house. “Oh, she was a WHORE!” Angie announced. I gasped so loud at that! I couldn’t believe she said that to him, after he had gone on and on about how much he loved her. It was pretty funny, though. George didn’t seem offended, they just debated it for awhile. And that was nothing- by the end of the night, Angie was calling George a man-whore for flirting with her- to his face! Luckily, he didn’t seem to be one to be offended easily. When it was time for him to go, he reached out and took her hand, raised it to his lips and kissed the back of it. Then he pulled her in closer and they kissed over the table.

What a strange night at work. I wonder what will happen today?

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~ by Nika Dreamscape on October 9, 2009.