The post about people racing for OJ and Barrel seats at the Hawthorn Racetrack reminded me of something I witnessed while working at a DC several years in a row… Ok so it wasn’t quite fist fighting but I’m pretty sure someone wanted too. I know I did.
So inevitably when the doors open at 8am there is a line of people waiting just itching to get in to the hellhole and get “the good seats”. The place we had DC’s was in the desert and the brothers (rumor had it) were too cheap to pay the extra fee for the AC so they just used fans. So imagine if you will the outside temperature being north of 100 degrees F and by north I mean at times it was 110 in the parking lot. You are in a basically a big tin building with 3,000-5,000 of your CLOSEST friends with no AC aaaaand this thing lasts hours upon hours.
The good seats were either on the floor or the coveted few sections where the fans were pointed. I was working the front door one year and was the guy who got to open them to the masses.
So there we are, a half dozen attendants VS a few hundred of gods people and we are the only thing standing between them and the next 8 hours of pure hell. Anyway, when the doors finally opened it was like a scene from a war movie. People were running in heels and suits to get the good seats. If someone fell down they would all but trample others to get in. I saw elbows being thrown, arguments flaring up it was truly a sight to see.
I noticed a family with someone who was obviously a study (dressed in jeans and a nice shirt) standing clear of the mayhem and once the herd of zealots fought their way in the study walked past me and I heard him tell his escort “You JW’s will die for each other in a concentration camp but you will kill each other over a lousy seat?”
