Flashback to 2002, Day 12

February 23, 2002:
Tonight is a night that we have been dreading for a week. After seeing how different crowds appear for each group, we knew that N'SYNC would have a mob of young kids, who might not be accompanied by adults. We were right. This bunch were just out of control. Running, screaming, you name it. The worst predictor might have been the two arrests that were made just outside of our check-in gate at the beginning of the shift. Then I had to wait for 10 minutes while they called "I'll get back to you" to clear me, since I wasn't scheduled for today. She finally called back and told them to tell me that she would clear it this time, but I would have to be sure to call her the next time - WHAT? I have one more shift, that I AM scheduled for! We were hopping all night. When we had our briefing in the staff tent, they were extremely firm about the security precautions. We weren't going to be able to switch tickets for sections and gave us all these other tough instructions. Beside that, N'SYNC were being a pain and demanded all these other conditions. We couldn't even walk through the floor area, like we had done EVERY other night to get to the booth, because they were doing a sound check. We had to walk all the way around the grandstands. Like we cared what they sounded like (and could walk on to the floor from the other side, anyway! I was not impressed with their self importance)
We had people coming in with all sorts of goofy problems. All along, if someone realized that they had left some valuables back at the security tent, we've been pretty accomodating to accompany them to retrieve their items. One of us had to go for them to be able to reenter the OMP. I usually sent one of the guys, because they weren't usually doing anything, anyway. Tonight it was just the three of us girls, so I volunteered to go to get some Olympic seatcushions for a man who said his wife was going to kill him for leaving her Opening Ceremony souvenirs. He was tall and walked at a run, anyway, and dragged me clear down to UNION STATION! By the time we got back I was nearly dead. I got into the tent and could tell that there was something wrong. There was a man sitting at the end of the table, filling out an Incident Report. Not good. While I was gone, this man had come in with his kids, his blind wife with a seeing-eye dog, his brother-in-law, his two kids and his wife in a wheelchair. They had paid $150 EACH for the tickets. (Can you believe it?) The first family had been seated all right, but when they tried to get the wheelchair placed, somebody had refused to allow it in the area for some reason. Who knows? Anyway, when the man came into the IB to try to get some help, he got one of the other women, and she is a very nice person who always follows the rules. Not what was needed in this case. When she timidly asked a host if something could be done, he said he would ask a supervisor, left for a minute, came back and said his boss wouldn't do anything, she said OK and told him there was nothing that could be done. He tried a couple of other hosts and didn't get much encouragement, so he told his brother-in-law and family that they wouldn't be able to get in and sent the four of them home, with the children in tears. He had just come in to fill out the complaint form. I nearly had a fit. The supervisor in question has become a pal and I knew that he would never send anyone away like that. Linda came in about then and I told her a little about the incident and asked her to look into it. She told the disgruntled spectator to call the family and see if they would come back. They had gotten to Sandy and were too upset to return. Linda started checking and talked to the supervisor - the host had never talked to him! After some major negotiations we were able to arrange tickets to Sunday's concert for them all. I gave them the IB phone number to call so that I could get them in without incident. What a mess.
One of the Team Leaders came in and said that as near as he could see, everyone had gone nuts. There were a couple of other Team Leaders who had been sent home for disappearing and being unavailable for hours at a time - one had his whole family there







as volunteers and the whole bunch of them came late so they wouldn't be assigned to a location, then would park themselves at gates near the stage every night and just watch the show. Luckily, those kind were a tiny minority. Almost all of the hosts were dependable and hard working, going where they were needed and doing the crummiest assignments with little or no complaint. We would joke about how cold or tired or annoyed we were, then greet all the spectators with a smile. There were few unpleasant incidents.
A posh woman and her daughter from California rushed in in a "panic". They had to have the Day 16 pin and the tent was out, so they wanted to go to the Superstore. I thought, why not, and said I'd run them over. (I haven't been able to get there and was glad for the chance) We had to stand in line for a minute and when we got in, it looked like locusts had been there. Almost all the racks were picked over and the only pins that were left were the Torch Relay pins that were sold in grocery stores. Rushing back to get in for the medals ceremony, I ran into Steve Young, literally, who was leaving after his nightly appearance. I finally had my brush with greatness!
LOST AND FOUND OF THE NIGHT: After predicting for a week that we would have 1200 purple scrunchies, we ended with more than double our previous high total of lost items (no purple scrunchies, however). My favorite was the man's wedding band - you have to wonder what, exactly, he was doing with it off his finger.
I hope I don't offend any of you N'SYNC fans, but they were a huge disappointment. After all their star demands, they only managed to perform for about 35 minutes. (Did they run through all their songs and quit?) The fireworks were over at 9:30 - the earliest on any other show was 10:00. Then we spent until after 11:00 filling out forms and sealing up single gloves, etc. And we had 7 or 8 extra support operations people come in to help, too. I guess it could have been worse - it could have been raining...