Petty Drama
Standing around by the info booth or in the hallway and giving out information can be a lot of fun, when its busy and a lot of people are coming to me for questions. I also really enjoy the chance to do some people-watching. Sometimes I see some interesting or amusing things. I am pretty sure I saw an off-duty Elvis impersonator at one point, yesterday. He had the hair down pat, but was wearing khaki shorts and a Hawaiian shirt, so I guess even Elvis gets a day off, in this town.
I got to work one of my favorite areas again last night- out in the hallway just before you enter the Baysides where the cars are held. I like that spot because there is a pretty high volume of foot traffic, and I always get the same questions- where are very easy to answer:
Where is the auction arena? Back down that hallway, to the left.
Where can I see the cars? Through the bayside door right over there. Here’s a map. Have fun!
Do I really have to buy a ticket just to see the cars? You do have to buy a ticket to get into the exhibition area and auction arena. However, we do have some free activities outside in the Southeast parking lot, such as GM Ride-n-Drives, drifting, burnouts, and other stunt driving events, until 6pm.
How much are tickets and where do I buy them? Tickets are $15 per day, and you can buy them at the box office right on the other side of that banister over there. *Points*
And that is pretty much it. 98% of the questions I get asked fall into one of those categories. Most of the time, I have people coming up to me for answers pretty often, so I don’t really get bored. But now and then, things might die down a little bit. That’s when it can be entertaining to listen to the radio chatter.
Each of us are assigned a walkie-talkie so we can communicate back and forth with our supervisor, get answers to questions we aren’t sure about, etc. Everyone shares the same channel, so anything that goes over the radio waves can be heard by anyone with a walkie-talkie. I was kept entertained yesterday afternoon by all kinds of drama circulating around the info booth by Richard Petty’s blue Challenger, that I worked at the day before.
First it was the tv crew who wanted to do some filming by the booth. The trunk, hood and driver door of the Challenger is kept open so people can look at the engine, sit inside, etc. Apparently, the tv crew wanted to know if they could close it all up for filming. The poor girl at the info booth didn’t have the authority to say yes or no and the camera crew was getting pretty miffed about it. I listened to the chatter between the info girl and our supervisor for a little bit as they discussed what to do, but never got to hear the final conclusion because some people came up to me with some questions.
Later on, the same info booth girl had to get back on the radio again because some VIPs were supposed to meet someone from Petty Garage at the booth, but they weren’t able to find their party. I guess they were getting pretty irate, because she ended up having to call for assistance to come and handle them.
So it seems like that particular booth was where all the excitement was happening, yesterday. Today is the last day of the convention, and already I am so tired! I’m looking forward to going in to work tonight, but I’m also ready for a nice long rest on Sunday. Still, as tiring as convention work is, I hope I get to do more of it soon, because it really is a lot of fun!
