A Thief Comes to Idora Park
Looking back, I realize we didn't make much money working at Idora Park, but for our age, we made a lot of money. I started working there when I was 13 years old. And in those days, all you had to do was save up your money for something you wanted. The first thing I saved up my money for was a pool table. I love that pool table. But, there are always people who try to take a shortcut.
Pat Duffy, Jr. was very good at guessing which people were good people. He was a natural at detecting bullshit. But sometimes even Pat got fooled.
One day, I had heard they hired a guy named Ray from my neighborhood. I grew up on the East Side of Youngstown, where 99% of the kids my age were cool. We went to school, we did sports, we hung out and sometimes we scrapped a little, but the East Side was never really as bad as its reputation. Unfortunately, contrary to what the Osmond Brothers used to sing, one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch—and Ray was a bad apple.
I was walking down the Midway one day, and I saw Ray walking around with his Idora Park shirt on. I was thinking, Yeah, right. I asked him, “How'd you get a job here?”
“I just put my application in and they hired me,” he said.
I wasn't thrilled about this. Even where I grew up, Ray had a reputation for being around when things went missing from people's houses and yards. But I figured, you had to give everyone a chance. Besides, Pat Duffy, Jr. hired him, so maybe Ray was making a change in his life.
Well, he was there for a couple weeks, filling in for the Skee-Ball operators when they went on break, and all the sudden, the Skee-Ball drawer was starting to come up short.
A couple weeks later, they put them in the punk rack and then the punk rack was coming up short.
Now Pat knew where I lived, and he knew where Ray lived. It didn’t take him long to call me into the office. He asked, “By any chance, do you know this kid, Ray?”
And I said, “Yeah, somewhat. I know more of him than know him. I know him by reputation.”
“We've been having problems with some of the games coming up short when he's working there. I don't think it's the other guys, but there's no way to really do something unless we catch them.”
I nodded.
He said, “Chuck, one the reasons I put you in Putt-Putt was because I trust you. We were coming up short down there and that's why we got rid of the person that work there. And that’s why I put you in his place.
“So, I tell you what we're going to do. I'm going to start sending him down to Putt-Putt to give you your breaks, and see if the drawers are coming up short.”
I said that was fine with me. Keeping track at Putt-Putt was a little different from the other places. If you weren't smart enough, you could end up getting caught.
The first couple of times Ray came to give me a break, I showed him what he had to do. Both times I said, “Don't forget to do this, and we'll see how things go.” The first two breaks weren't bad—the drawer came out okay.
But on the third time, the drawer came up short. Pat called me back into the office. I had a brilliant idea. It didn't bother me at all if I had someone watch spying on me. And I wanted Pat to know for sure that I wasn't the one stealing from him.
I said, “Well, Mr. Duffy, he doesn't know everyone that works at the park yet. You could have someone watch him.”
So that's what he did.
Over the next two or three breaks he did it again once, then twice. The second time, the guy who was watching him called security. They took him up to the office, and he was fired.
Anyone who ever worked at Idora Park knows it took a lot of people to keep that park going. The kids who work the games, the people who worked at the concession stands, the ride operators, the people who fixed the rides, the ground crews who kept Idora Park looking nice—we were all a part of Idora Park and we were all proud to be working there.
Even if we had slow days, they wouldn't send people home. They didn't make much money at the park on the slow days. In fact, I would say they probably lost money. They would give people the option, but nobody ever got sent home who didn’t want to leave.
I try to be honest in my life. I think that's the way to go. I always considered Pat Duffy to be a fair and honest boss. I always thought he deserved the same from the people that worked for him. Idora Park was like family, and that’s why Ray deserved to get fired—he stole from our family.