Wednesday, December 15, 2021

Merry Christmas To The Magic Kingdom

 It was a rather unusual night at the Magic Kingdom.  Every night is unusual, but this one was just weird.  It began with a peanut butter bomb!  Little homemade nuggets of goodness made by one of the Kings Knights.   Butter, peanut butter and powdered sugar covered in chocolate can soothe the savage beast.

I arrived early as usual, but spent the time sitting in my truck watching the parking lot just 50 feet away.  A young man was there, dressed in sweat pants, a long dress and a long coat.  I rather imagine he was homeless and looking for his next fix.  

As I watched, he walked up and kicked the back door of the building like the entire thing would just fall down.  Good grief!!  Then he did it again before looking my direction.  What that for my benefit or was he really trying to break in to the building?  Apparently he didn't notice the door opens towards him.  It was a sign of things to come.


I opened on time and divested 118 people of their money.  While sitting there quietly, I heard a loud noise.  Someone was banging on the back glass door with their fist.  I always check that door first thing to make sure it's locked since it's at my back with all that money at my front.  Not seeing who it was, I just pointed to the front door.

Suddenly there was a very disturbing looking man standing in front of me with huge headphones, two backpacks and a gigantic black bag full of something.  He smelled none too good.  My antenna went up like a rocket.  

He wanted to know what it cost to do this and how much he could win.  I knew in a flash there was no way he could afford this, but I went through the spiel anyway, hoping he would wander out again.  He finally walked away as I made a dash for the back room full of big strong men.

They followed him back to the kitchen cash register where he demanded food.  By then there were five men surrounding him.  They gave him a couple of tamales from a pan someone had brought in and escorted him to the door.  Thankfully this time there was no call to the police.  You just never know what to expect.  

Then came time to hand out the gift cards to the peasants.  Apparently the King felt generous because each card handed out was worth $10 upon their return trip towards Bingo cards.  That meant the infernal machine and I crossed paths while I tried to figure out how to make that happen so it would spit out a tag with the same number of dollars as were actually in the till.  Reason being, I won't be here to do it for them.

Honestly, I expected cheers and clapping, but got nothing.  I didn't even hear a thank you.  You never can predict the Bingo crowd.  

By the end of the evening, I had two people capable of handling the $10 credit and was ready to leave the building. They have me on speed dial should anything happen with the infernal machine.  Bingo will now be closed until the first week in January.  I waved goodby as I drove out of sight, first making sure that guy wasn't anywhere near my truck.  

Merry Christmas to the Magic Kingdom!


12 comments:

  1. Sounds like an interesting evening to say the least! You just never know how people are going to react, so it was probably a good idea getting reinforcements.

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    1. It's always an adventure at the Magic Kingdom of Bingo!

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  2. Fun evening for the last one this year. One person like your vagrant could spoil everyone's evening. Glad you didn't let that happen. Fortunate you have an antenna 🙂 I'm sure you're paid your worth to the Magic Kingdom and don't need the applause 🤑

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    1. That seems to be true more than ever. We have a huge contingency of homeless here since we caught the neighboring town's police department dropping off THEIR homeless in our county. Yeah, really.

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  3. Obviously life is never dull at the "Magic Kingdom". Should be fun when they all start turning in those $10 gifts. Glad the guy was no where near your truck when you left.

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    1. Most every time I walk out, I have a body guard go with me. It just happened they were all busy this time. I'm glad neither of those two were near my truck too!

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  4. We are just down the street from a major intersection where Highway 19 continues south but Alt-19 heads southwest towards downtown Tarpon Springs. There are always folks out near this area looking for $$$$ handouts. Some are a group from a well knows religious sect out of Clearwater who sends their recruits out to see how much $$$ they can bring in for the 'group'. Anyway, there is one guy named Tim who is wheelchair bound...he is the only one I help around here. We made a deal, he never approaches me for $$$, I approach him when I want to give him $$$. We wave at each other all the time. Saw him the first day we were back, gave him a $20 and his eyes got so big. Said, "How are you doing Tim?" and his eyes got even bigger than I remembered his name! He lives with a friend on the west side of 19 (we live on the east side) and he said he was doing well. Wished him Merry Christmas after our 5 minute talk...some people really need help, trying to figure out who is hard. There was another guy in a wheel chair that I watched who, thinking no one could see him, got out of the chair and stretched, pick something up off the ground, and hurried back to his chair when some gal he was with told him that 'he was being watched'. I have not seen him for a couple years now.

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    1. If I think they are for real, I'll give them a few bucks. Mostly they take your money, then walk around the block to their new car. I've seen that several times. It's hard to tell the difference. Congrats for helping out that guy. Sounds like he really needs it.

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  5. It's very sad to see street beggars but it isn't necessary for them to intimidate or be rude. 😒

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    1. Exactly Patsy. I don't care if they are nice about it. Mostly around here they just want drug money.

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  6. Sweet story Dave just told in your comments :) You never know the stories behind these people. Sure can be scary sometimes though. Nice of you guys to give him something to eat. I bet you're looking forward to a little break since it's closed through the first of the year.

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    1. I am totally looking forward to the break. Then again, it's something to do. It's hard to pick which time I like better! LOL

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