the skate park

between my times as director of kids on stage, i am bound by the department of parks and recreation (dpr) to deliver a solid fifteen hours a week of labor of some sort. for the month of june, my shackles have been locked to the skate park, located on father capodanno drive, near jefferson. thursdays, fridays and sundays (weather permitting, of course), i am to report there and make sure no one dies.

day 1: may 28th

rain. instead, i went to the cromwell center and dressed up as the genie from aladdin to be a greeter for the aladdin puppet show, hosted by the afterschool program.

day 1b: may 29th

my twenty-first birthday. not that i celebrate my birthdays, but i had a party to attend that evening and so was anxious to get out of work. it's also my first day here. i'm not used to people skating, biking, scooting or roller blading, so i'm naturally very nervous that someone's going to get hurt. "relax," said mike, the biker. "kids fall here all the time. if they don't get back up, then you have a problem."

well, not even an hour before i have to leave, i hear, "matt, come quick!" a kid is down. blood. he's split his lip open. i have nothing to clean the blood with, and the nearby office is closed. all i can do is fill out an accident report, and i do so. fortunately, two of the kids present were cousins with poor charlie who fell, and called his mother directly. it turned out that he needed five stitches in his lip and two on his chin, but i find that out on...

day 2: may 31st

it's my first sunday. 11:30 - 7:00 with a half hour lunch. i go in, a bit more prepared for what is to happen. i meet a bigger kid who goes by the nickname 'chex mix', or, simply, 'chex'. he explains to me what 'getting whopped' is (jackie, this was a gloin on my part. for those who don't know what it is, all i'll say is - b.j. anyone?). he also tells me about the different teams, like 'team fupa'. he explains that there is a group of girls who enter the park but don't skate, and they are called 'the ramp tramps'.

well, as the day goes on, the park fills up with between fifty and sixty people, all hanging out, riding, skooting, biking, whatnot. a grill shows up and people are cooking. i don't know that this is a problem, but someone did and called the parks police. they then asked me how i could allow grilling to go on, as well as drinking and drugs. (excuse me? drinking and drugs? i KNOW those are illegal.) i explained that it was my second day on the job, and that i'm here by myself. after that, the parks officer told me to make routine checks around just to make sure no one was doing anything stupid. i made a few rounds, and talked to some of the kids. "they're crazy, but not bad," i thought. i figured it would be a cake job, not anticipating the next week.

day 3: june 4th

rain. went to greenbelt. talked kids on stage.

day 3b: june 5th

rain. again. went to greenbelt. again. talked kids on stage. again. decided on doing "cats". *slaps hand* what a horrible idea.

day 3c: june 7th

it's not as crowded as last week. in fact, only half as packed. mike the biker brought his rottweiler. i told him to be careful that she not use the park as a bathroom. he assured me that it was okay, and that she wasn't aggressive. she was definitely docile, but a bit skittish, and was apparently afraid of humans.

as the day progresses, one kid, vin (who's probably thirteen or fourteen), decides he's going to fuck with me, by stealing my stuff and hiding it. "he's joking," i tell myself, and i ask for it back. instead, he runs around the park with another kid, playing keep away. now, in the crate that he took, i had helmets that people were supposed to be wearing (oh yes, people are supposed to wear helmets while on the ramps; no one ever does), band-aids, a sign-in sheet, incident reports, and other important paperwork. i'm starting to get annoyed, so i pretend to get really pissed off and i eventually get it back. however, the kid just didn't know when to stop, and kept trying to fuck with me.

i get him to leave me alone, and i'm watching some of the kids scoot. this one kid was doing these AMAZING tricks on a scooter. triple flips while spinning it underneath him as he's somersaulting, and lands on the ramp and continues to scoot. on woman who was watching, bumped into bell (the rottweiler). that was the end of that. she FREAKED out. her leash was tied to the bottom of the bench, so she didn't have much room to go, but man she moved fast. she knocked over someones drink, and her leash pinched my calf against the bench, leaving a nice blood blister. not only that, but the incident literally scared the shit out of her. we called mike over to clean it up, but he had no bags. we found a few from people's lunches and covered the rest up with paper.

i found a piece that he missed, so i took on of my spare forms and used it to throw out the poopie. i turn around, and my box is gone again. i find vin, and tell him, "listen. as long as i get it back before i leave, i'm okay. i'm not going to flip out." he says, "i have no clue what you're talking about." well, now i'm pissed.

a good ten minutes later, vin tells me that he doesn't know anything about it, and he's asked around; him and the other kid offer to help me locate it. then, someone turns up a helmet, and i find out another two are in the bowl (a giant bowl the kids skate in). i go in, and there they are. then, i find my box and the last helmet. in the piss corner.

no. fucking. way.

someone peed in one of the helmets.

people are eating on the ramps.

my band-aids are littering the floor.

everyone has a limit.

i go out to the office, and request parks police. while we wait, we see what looks like a fight brew, but it quickly dissipates. sure enough, one kid (i forget his name, but he's always been good about rules and such) comes to tell me that a fight did indeed occur. one of the women eating pizza on the ramps was saying how she shouldn't get yelled at, and the kid defended me, and he wound up getting pushed. he did nothing, which was wise, but the fight didn't escalate, because she and her friends left.

the parks police showed up, and with their assistance, we closed the park temporarily to clean. i found my four helmets (one was missing the foam inside, one was missing a clip, and one was covered in urine), three band-aids, and my other paperwork. we let people back in, but they have to wear helmets. well, some kids just won't listen. i reminded a few of them to wear helmets repeatedly.

let me quickly define remind: screaming "GET OFF THE RAMPS! YOU! HELMET! NOW! GET OFF!"

since they wouldn't listen and i was going hoarse, i decided to shut down the park for good for the day. i had the assistance of the parks police, and we shut it down, much to the dismay of the kids, who had a lot of things to say, and of course knew exactly what they were talking about because they were thirteen and fourteen on average.

i stayed until seven to make sure no one snuck back in, and spoke civilly with some of the remaining kids, who had, not a half hour ago, given me a few pieces of their minds. i wound up giving one of them a ride home, since he didn't live far from me.

tomorrow, i'm calling my boss and demanding that i get at least another person to assist me, because i really don't want to have to do this again. i felt awful for the kids who did nothing wrong, and i hate punishing the masses for the crimes of the few, but in that situation, it was the best thing i could've done.

oy. hopefully next week'll be better off. maybe they'll wear helmets. HA.