Last Friday night I was door bitch at the Sydney Oxfam Trailwalker. This involved monitoring the front gate of the car park and directing traffic from 7 pm until 3 am. I’d love to be one of the people who was walking 100km to raise money for this amazing organisation, but the ol’ knees start barking about 30km into any walk, so it’s probably not going to happen. Not until my knee replacement happens in 2040 anyway… but I reckon those who can, do and those who can’t support those who can, right?
Firstly, let me just say that this wasn’t the role I signed up for. Initially I was going to be on the check-in desk, cheerily greeting walkers at the halfway point and expertly marking them off in my big book with my big pen. What happened instead was that they were really short of car park volunteers and none of the other volunteers would change their jobs.
That was my first lesson in WTFdom that night. I mean, if the dude in charge is saying to you, “I really need help out in the car park” and you’ve volunteered to help, you just help, right? Apparently not. Instead you say, “oh, I’m only here to do the check-in desk, I don’t want to do the car park” and stand looking expectantly at the dude.
“I’ll do car park,” I said, stepping away from my big book and putting down my big pen.
Car park seemed pretty straightforward. One way road. Behind me was a gate blocking the road to where the walkers were all crossing. To my left was an area being kept clear for emergency vehicles. Gate to my right was where the support cars needed to be directed with my glowing red car park wand. I quickly took to having Darth Vader fights with my fellow volunteer and car-park-buddy Cheryl.
Then the first few cars drove up, bus style. Never one, always three or more.
“Welcome! Are you one of the support teams tonight?” Mine was an earnest, beaming welcome and many drivers were instantly chipper in response. This was not to last. For any of us.
“Sure am.”
“Do you have a pass for your car?”
“Oh, my friend has that, he’s already inside.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t let you in without a pass.”
“Why not? Who said?”
“The showground only has so much capacity and if I let you in that means another support team might not be able to -”
Before I could even finish, the car drove off, squeezing past the gate blocking the road to the walk track and nearly running over two delirious walkers (the walkers were all slightly delirious, having walked uphill for 52 km to arrive at this point). I went running after him and effectively had to talk him back around and into the right area of the showground.
Welcome to the car park.
Okay, so I quickly learned that the volunteer who was now manning my check-in desk had probably done car park before. Hence not wanting to do car park again.
Throughout my eight hour shift, I reckon I walked / ran / fumed my way over 52 km myself. Bear in mind that the 80/20 rule applied here: 80% of people were perfectly lovely and mercifully obedient. It was the 20% of wankers we had to worry about.
“Sorry, you can’t park here, it’s being kept clear for emergency vehicles.”
“I don’t see any emergency vehicles.”
“That’s because there’s none here right now but they do arrive and sometimes there are a lot of them at once.”
“I’m not moving my car.”
When someone says they’re not moving their car and your authority is limited to a fake light saber and a hi-vis vest with Oxfam on the front and VOLUNTEER on the back, there’s really not a lot you can do. However, that guy did not count on meeting my fellow volunteer and car-park-buddy Cheryl.
Now, Cheryl was a tiny, bird-like retired school teacher in a homemade poncho and she wasn’t taking shit from anyone. She didn’t even need her light saber.
“Unless you want to be personally responsible for SOMEONE’S DEATH tonight, I suggest you move your car NOW,” she bellowed from behind me. “I’ve radioed your plates through to the police.”
Guy moved the car. Just quietly, we didn’t actually have a radio.
All night we had people driving left when we told them to drive right. People driving between trees instead of around them. People driving up when they were supposed to be driving down.
“Put your hazards and on drive very, very slowly,” we repeated ad nauseum. “Please stay off the grass with your vehicle at all times.”
I spend the night chasing down people who decided to drive across the grass rather than around it or, better yet, park in the middle of the grass so they could pitch a tent.
“I thought you were told not to drive onto the grass,” I huffed and puffed when I caught up to them.
“Well, we’re here now,” they would say, hauling a tarp off the roof of their car.
“Please, just get off the grass immediately. You are risking Oxfam’s right to use this showground for the night.”
“Well, that’s their problem, is it?”
I can’t honestly get my head around how someone could be selfless enough to drive miles at 1 am in the morning to support a buddy through a 100km walk, yet be selfish enough to risk the license of the whole event just so they could pitch a tent. Same goes for the massive Winnebago trucks that some teams seemed to require from their support team (“What is this, the Tour De France?!” scoffed Cheryl) versus the standard car with a couple of fold out chairs.
The conversation I had most often with people involved the distance from the car park to the check in desk.
“But it’s so faaaaaar,” they would whine. “We have heavy booooooxes to carry.”
Cheryl’s reponse: “If your team can walk 52km up a steep cliff through dense bush to get here, you can walk across a bloody oval.”
“But we neeeeed to be cloooose to the check-in tent,” they would moan.
“You can prostrate yourself at the entrance for all I care as long as you park your car where I just directed you.”
I’m very, very glad that I volunteered my services for the night and even more glad that Cheryl volunteered hers. It’s testament to our shared loathing of self-entitled people that as the night wore on we managed to keep all cars and Winnebagos off the grass, just as it’s a testament to our patience and enthusiasm that we kept the fun happening at the front gate.
All in all it was an eventful, rather fun evening that showcased the amazing endurance of both the walkers and the car park crew.
Helen K says
Oh Bron! I can JUST picture the scene (literally, as I saw some of the same – not too much, fortunately – when doing the Melbourne walk) and it is so, so frustrating. Thank goodness for you and Cheryl. We find the same with a lot of volunteer things too (school fundraisers, sporting teams needing parent support, etc – people only wanting to do certain things and not others). I actually jumped on here as a bit of light relief from summarising the vitriol from submitters aghast that we are proposing to introduce some environmental controls (to address loss of vegetation and problems with drainage due to high site coverage) to their properties, which have jumped in value exponentially through absolutely nothing that they have done. They have extrapolated these values into expectations of massive overdevelopments into the future (which they were unlikely to have approved anyway) – and how DARE we propose to remove this, for the greater good of, you know, the environment. Threats and aggro all around. Joyous! (sometimes I love my job 🙁 )
KezUnprepared says
Oh my goodness. People like that do my head in!!!! YUCK YUCK YUCK! It’s unbelievable how much more special than other people they think they are!
Good on you for filling a role nobody else wanted. And also? I think I kind of love Cheryl haha x
Erin says
Oh frustrating for you {{} but… oh Cheryl’s answers are priceless!! Life long buddy there cause she isn’t going to take guff from anyone. Priceless!
Jo @ CountryLifeExperiment says
I have no idea why some people think that way, but as a teacher, I just love it when the same people come into the classroom, and try to tell me that their precious darling is a misunderstood genius, and obviously the problem is all the other children, who should be flogged and hung by their toe from the flagpole.
Christine @ Adventure, Baby! says
Thank god for people like you Bron! People like that do my head in. Cannot stand it!
Emily says
Aaaargh. Bloody entitlement. Good on you (and Cheryl) for keeping smiles on your faces. I’m not sure I would have. x
Hugzilla says
OMG…. I can’t even…. So much precious snowflakedom! Kudos to you and Cheryl for trying to keep things running smooth and civilly.
Jane @Almost Jane says
Good on you Bron. This is why I hate people. OK, some people. Jerky people. Also, I think Cheryl might be my spirit animal 😉 xx
Rae Hilhorst says
What a pack of wankers. I would have done my noodle. Born you are a star x
Lisa says
Hmmm, some people can be so self-absorbed. I have been involved in volunteering for different things over the years and there is always a few people who think the world owes them something or the rules don’t apply to them. Good on you Bron (& Chezza) for keeping them in line xx
Jules@toddlersplusteens says
It does my head in when people think they are beyond the rules . Good on you and Cheryl for being the ladies in the car park . I’ve always been happy to be placed wherever needed that is what volunteering is all about . X
shannon @my2morrows says
Urghh this behaviour really makes me angry. People can be shits can’t they (20% of the time). But then there’s people like you Bron volunteering to help others and knowing how to have fun along the way. Good on you lovely. Xx
Zoe Meunier says
Yep, we have it far too good here and it shows. People – and I’m sure I’ve been guilty of it myself – are all like, ‘Yes, I really want to help!….as long as it’s fun and doesn’t inconvenience me in any way.’ I’m going to try to channel Cheryl next time I need to deal with a difficult person.
Holly says
Urgh… That all sounds awful! You are lovely to give your time to a good cause, especially considering how it turned out.
Entitlement I know all too well. Your title alone took me back to my near decade of life as a prison psych. Oh boy, you hear some stuff. Mostly the mindset that ‘I did what I wanted and I will do it again’, with no concern about their impact on the strangers (or not) that they hurt in the process. Sometimes the distortions just made us laugh though. You gotta have a sense of humour dealing with people 😉
Mother Down Under says
People!
The cafe where I go every morning has a very small car park…as they do a roaring business, it is always packed, and there are often cars lined up in the street waiting to turn in.
I love to sit there (having walked to the cafe) with my coffee and watch the car park antics…such an interesting lesson in human nature.
There is one spot covered in bright yellow lines with giant NO PARKING sign that people love to park in…and when they do they block three other spots. But if you point out to them that they have just parked their car in a designated no parking area, they say, but I am just grabbing a coffee. NEWS FLASH! We are ALL just grabbing coffees!
Jenni says
I was only having the same conversation with hubby the other day. Just where does this over blown aggrandised sense of me me me come from? I mean WTF?
I work in public health and its rife there.
It’s pretty ugly to see, isn’t it.
But don’t you just love the Cheryl’s of the world who know how to knock the me me me crowd off their perch. I mean she wouldn’t be able to shine if it wasn’t for the wankers!
Do you think it’s peculiar to Australians ? I hope not but I think as a nation we are getting a bit like this.
Good on you for volunteering and I guess you’ll know next time to stay seated at check in huh!
Bec @ The Plumbette says
OMG Bron, I was laughing in horror. Thank goodness for people like Cheryl. Good on her and you for manning the car park. It’s a crap job, but someone has to do it. I don’t understand why people don’t do what they’re asked or go where they’re needed when they volunteer. I agree that if you volunteer, you do what is needed to be done most. Not what YOU want to do. This happens in churches too and I feel like hitting my head against a brick wall. The sense of entitlement baffles me. What a big night for you though – 7pm to 3am? Holy heck, you would have needed a good sleep after that. xx
Shannon @ Oh Creative Day says
One day, when I grow up, I want to be just like Cheryl. One day, I’d also like to do the Trailwalker.
Good on you for volunteering!
Lisa@RandomActsOfZen says
Yay for the carpark volunteers,Bron! Some days you just need a Cheryl in your life, don’t you?
This sounds like our school carpark. The gym-gear-wearing-but-not-going-to-the-gym ladies in their black Jeeps have the entitled thing going on pretty well around here.
Again, good on you all for holding it together x
Reannon @shewhorambles says
I love the picture of you & Cheryl telling dickheads what do? Why are people dickheads in these situations? I have to say you have WAY more patience than me. I think I’d have got huffy & given up. Good job Bron 🙂
Life With The Crew says
Well, I’m glad there is someone else bitching and moaning about rule breakers! it sounds like an awful time Bron – I would have been fuming. The thing that has been driving me nuts here is people that let their dogs off lead in public places. It is illegal, yet that doesn’t stop people from thinking that they can let their dog run willy-nilly everywhere and that they have it under control. They do NOT have their dogs under control, because I have been bitten once, almost bitten two weeks later, and have had to change direction on runs, pick up my child, almost pick up my dog, because of dogs that are running loose. Some people are just complete idiots and there is no explanation for them (or excuse for their behavior). Whew – thanks for giving the green light on the rant fest.
Malinda @mybrownpaperpackages says
I would have lost my shit at people, I tell it how it is and if someone was being a dickhead I would have said that to their face. Probably not the best person to have helping out :/ Sounds like you did a stellar job!
Sara | Kid Magazine says
I love Cheryl! Good on you both for volunteering and dealing with all the jerks. I am firmly of the view that society is going to s**t because of that sense of entitlement. But I keep plodding away trying to make my difference and raise my daughter to not be one of those jerks. xx
Nicole - Champagne and Chips says
What is wrong with people! I just feel sick. WTF!?! And it is for charity!
I just do not get it.
Meanwhile, I’m so glad there are Cheryls (and Brons) in this world.
Jacinta says
Oh dear Lord you had me giggling! On behalf of everyone THANK YOU! You did an awesome thing volunteering! Hopefully Karma will come along and bite those people in the arse, perhaps in the form of a school bus parking on their front lawn?? P.S. I think I love Cheryl 😉
Maxabella says
Perhaps a redirected flight path above their houses? hmmmm…x