Many years ago, almost 20 at this point which is scary. I was traveling and meeting some friends who had driven up to Tampa to meet me at Busch Gardens. I beat them to the park and was sitting on a bench by the entrance. A lady walked up to me and asked if I wanted tickets to get into the park for free. Of course I said yes.
And Thank You.
She worked at the park and the tickets expired that day so she passed them on to someone to use.
My cousin used to work at SeaWorld and she used to do the same thing with tickets she had that were expiring.
I think this happened on our first trip to WDW with kids. My oldest and I were walking towards the Yeti Ride, aka EE, when a man was walkng away from Yeti with his son. My child and his were about the same age. I think his son chickened out about getting on the ride.
The man asked if we were going to EE and if we would like two FPs. And we said yes and thank you very much!
This was a great thing for him to do. Ever since then if we have left over FPs we hand them out to people. I get the kids to "hunt" for the right people to give the FPs.
And I let them give the chosen people the FPs.
Sometimes we cannot find the right group in the parks so we will hang around the bus stop at the resort until we find the right people.
One day I was walking down Main Street and a couple asked if I would take their photo with the castle in the background. I think they asked me because they could see I was carrying a camera bag. I took the time to pose them just so, waited for the crowd to ease up a bit and then I took the photo for them. I did a portrait shot of them to get them and the castle into the photo. And I kneeled down to get a different perspective. I could see in their faces they did not expect all of this.
They were very appreciative and I hope the photo came out for them.
Wow. This reminds me of another photo story. Even farther back in time. So far back cameras used FILM!
The town I lived in just had a major mall built. This was a big deal since it took at least a 45 minute drive to get to a mall. And the new mall was VERY nice. It even had a Bloomies!
I always park near the department store entrances when going to the mall and this day I parked near Bloomies. BTW I have not been to a mall in a good five years.
As I was walking past the escalators this women walked up to me and asked in very broken English if I would take a photo of her. I thought this was a big odd. This Bloomies was very nicely done. Marble floors and all. But to take a photo?
I said yes and she handed me her camera and left me!
She went to the UP escalator. She wanted a photo of her coming DOWN the escalator.
It took the photo of course. But look how trusting she was. I think she was from Russia. What she was doing in our town from Russia I have no idea. But she had a very "old" camera and it had a Russian camera name on it. This was at the height of the Cold War and I think she was amazed at what she was seeing at Bloomies and the rest of the mall. I hope the photo came out.
Back to WDW. I always try to help people if they look lost and I hear a question I can answer.
A few trips backs we went to Tom Sawyers Island on the first raft to find a paint brush. One of my kids found a paintbrush! Woo Hoo!
But then the other child had a fit because they did not have a paint brush. We kept looking for another brush but I figured we were doing good to find one. Well we found another brush.
This was good and bad. I wanted another family to find the paint brush. I asked a CM about it and she said they would just return the paint brush to the island to find. On the way out on the raft I managed to get my oldest kid to give HER paint brush to another family. She was not real happy to give away her brush until she saw the looks on the faces of the people who got the paint brush. We had to explain what you got in exchange for the paint brush.
Later,
Dan
