1) The park always closed every January and February for "non op." Non op is a time of job fairs, recruiting, interviewing, hiring and training. It is also a time of building new rides (if there is a new ride that year), maintenance, re-painting and refreshing. I always opted for night shift, with the occasional evening shift thrown in.
On the day this particular event happened, I was working the evening shift. I had completed my sectionals and went back for spot checks. I found the back door of the main theater open and slightly propped open. I unsnapped the holster of my gun and called in my finding to dispatch, receiving a weird, hard to decipher reply. I opened the door and found about two dozen people setting up what would be a high tech puppet show. I went to the person evidently calling the shots and asked what was going on. To my great surprise I found the person to be Marty Krofft of Sid & Marty Krofft fame.
Sid and Marty produced a string of Saturday morning kid's shows, including The Buggaloos, Lidsville, HR Pufnstuf as well as Sigmund & The Sea Monsters, among others. I immediately went into fan boy mode. I had loved several of the shows and my younger brother loved other of their shows. For the next hour I gushed about the genius of the shows, but also discovered that Sid was the vision guy while Marty was the make it happen guy. Of all my celebrity encounters, by far, this was the most satisfying.
2) On another evening shift, when I came in, I found the admin building abuzz with activity, with police, a paddy wagon and park executives zipping about like alarmed bumblebees. The Assistant director of security was only too happy to fill me in. Apparently two teenagers had accessed the park by parking their car near a fence, using that to jump the fence, and then gathering "plush" (those cute stuffed dolls you get by landing a softball in a wooden basket, or knocking over three weighted metal pitchers with a baseballs).
When a roaming security officer spotted the activity, he called it in and attempted an apprehension. The two suspects fired off a couple of poorly aimed shots at the officer, seemingly unaware that a radio call would bring down a world of hurt on the two suspects.
The assistant director of security was most happy about being able to find a wrecker service way out in the county to tow the suspect car. The suspects would have to travel at least fifty miles out to get their car out of impound.
3) Another evening shift in non op. I was unaware that an academy class was going on in the roll call room. I was working radio and took a brief moment to step into the small alcove, adjacent to radio, to get a coke out of the soda machine. I was bent over when one of the trainees walked over and made a crack about me being short and that's why I was working radio. I stood up, turned towards him and looked him in the eye. It was then that he saw my nametag. He backed up against the wall, turned as white as a sheet and he wet himself. I didn't give the encounter another thought and went back to the radio room.
The next morning my phone rang at home, it was the assistant director of security.
"What did you do last night?" she asked in a commanding tone.
"What do you mean what did I do, I worked radio."
"Evidently, there was an incident at the coke machine."
I told her what happened. She replied "What you didn't know is that the two instructors had spent the entire hour before that telling stories about you."
"Wow!!" I said in shock, "You're making me feel bad."
"Yeah, that kid just called and quit."
"Now, you're really making me feel bad. Give me the kid's number and I'll apologize."
"No need. I'll handle it. I won't let them tell stories about you anymore. See you at three."
"Okay, see you. Bye."