Setting Up the Putt-Putt
This just wasn't my day.
Did you ever have one of those days when things just don't go right for you? Something that you want and somebody tells you no? Like you think you have a great idea and your boss just looks at you like, no. This was one of those days.
As I said before, I used to have to help set up the games before the season opened. Now, the year before this I've been put down in Putt-Putt, reason being is putt-putt was losing money and it shouldn't have been because Putt-Putt is a money-maker.
I had known Pat for the past four years—Pat Duffy Jr., that is. He asked me at the end of the season, “Would you mind going working down at Putt-Putt.”
I said, “Fine, why not?” I eventually saw that there were a lot of reasons “why not.” For one, fewer things happen. On the games and around there, a lot things happen and you can write about them but that's kind of boring. But I even have stories about Putt-Putt that I've had happened.
So I spent the last couple days sweeping and cleaning windows in the game arcades and helping to fill up the stuffed animals with the regular games. And then Pat Junior asked me to come the office.
I asked, “What do you need, Pat?”
He said, “Chuck, I want you to go get the Putt-Putt ready for the season.”
I said, “Fine, what do you need done to it?”
He said, “Well, I need you to re-glue all the outdoor carpeting down so that it’s a smooth surface for people to putt-putt on, and I think a fresh coat of paint on the water traps will be really good.”
I said, “That's fine. You want me to pick up the paint or what do you want me to do?”
He said, “Well. I'll tell you what I want you to do. Go ahead out and buy the paint and I'll reimburse you for it.”
Which I said was fine.
He said, “We have the glue. I’ll call the guys who are down fixing the rides because they had the glue down there, and I'll have him bring some up to you.”
Well it was time to go home so I said, “We'll get an early start on it tomorrow morning.”
The next morning, I looked at the weather forecast. The weather forecast, being what it is in Ohio, said nice sunny day mid-70s.
I said, “This is perfect for painting and for gluing.”
So I got the paint and painted all the water traps. Well, actually first I had to wash them all so the paint would stick. And after I got done washing them, Pat Junior came down and said, “Did you paint the water trap shut?”
And I said, “No, first I had to wash them and make sure that the paint would stay on.”
He said, “Okay try and get them done today.”
So after spending about two hours washing the traps, then waiting an hour for them to dry, I finally started to paint them. As I got the last one painted, it started cloud up a little bit. I thought, Well, it's probably just something passing. I'm not going to worry about it because the forecast said no rain.
But then again, being young, I didn't realize how inaccurate the weather forecasters could be. In 10 minutes after I was done painting them, it poured rain. I just stood there, looking at all my water traps filling up with blue paint-water.
I went up to the office to tell Pat. I said, “Pat, the forecast said no rain and well, it rained.”
He said, “Did you get them painted?”
I said, “Yeah, and now I have blue water.”
So, he said, “We'll check tomorrow morning. You're going to have to get them all cleaned up and try to paint them again.”
The next morning I spent, like, three hours trying to clean those water traps all out, getting my hands covered with blue paint all over them. It was just a mess, but I got it done.
That afternoon, I repainted all the water traps. It came out really nice, I must admit.
I went up to the office and told Pat Junior, “I got all the water traps painted.”
“Good,” he said. “What about gluing down the mats?”
I said, “I’ll do that tomorrow.”
He said, “Make sure you get it done first thing. We’re going to open in a couple days and we need this stuff dry and ready to go.”
So I did. Well, the problem was getting some of those mats to stay down flat. The Putt-Putt mats were kind of like hilly and should have been glued down better, so this was not an easy job.
Thank goodness I wore real shabby clothes that day because that glue got all over everything. But I thought, after last year after Pat Junior sending me to work on the Putt-Putt, it probably meant I was going back there. I made sure they were nice and flat and perfect, because I was going to work there and I wanted it to look nice.
When Pat Junior came down that night, the mats were glued down flat and the water holes were refilled with clean water. He said it was a nice job and that the next morning, we would get the obstacles that go on the Putt-Putt course, like the windmill and the house with a little hole in the middle of it.
The next morning, I was excited because we were going underneath the ballroom, which is where they stored all the props that went on the Putt-Putt course. The first thing I aw when I walked in was a church that you had to putt-putt through.
I looked at Pat Junior and said, “This is gorgeous!”
It was almost as tall as I was—a church with a big tall steeple—and it all lit up. I said, “This would be great out there, especially at night.”
Pat Junior said “No, Chuck. We’re not putting that out
Next thing I saw was a windmill. Now, if you've ever been on Putt-Putt course, you know windmills are a standard thing.
I said, “How about the windmill?”
Pat Junior looked at me and said, “Okay, we can put that out.”
Then there was a clown face that you had to hit the ball through, and if you were successful, it lit up. I said, “This is really cool! Can we try this?”
Pat Junior said, “No, Chuck, we’re not using that.”
Now, I love to play putt-putt. In fact, one of the reasons I go to Tilt Studios is to play putt-putt. If there was a putt-putt course back then, I would go there. There was one in Hubbard on 304. I used to go with a friend of mine who lived in Hubbard. That was the one that had a clown face at the end of the course. It had three holes, and if you got it in the top hole—the clown's mouth—you won a free game.
I love putt-putt.
So, I was kind of disappointed when I kept asking, “Can we use this?” and Pat Junior kept telling me, “No.”
But he’s the boss, and I went with what he said and put out everything that he told me to.
As I looked around when I was finished, I thought there were better things that we could have put on the course, but as I said, he is the boss and I had to do what he said. I must admit I was kind of hoping I wouldn't be working down there. Maybe I was pouting a little bit because things didn't go my way.
The next day, all the people who worked on the games came and got their shirts and their jackets and we were all told where we’d be working.
I still had my gold Idora jacket, so that's what I used.
Pat called me in the office and said, “Chuck, we're not losing money down there anymore. We're making money. I was afraid people were ripping me off and apparently they were, so we're putting you down at the Putt-Putt course.”
I guess I could understand his reasoning.
That was my first summer at the Putt-Putt course. The good thing was that I got to play a lot of Putt-Putt and beat the course record.
So, it wasn't a total loss.
See you on the midway!