Years ago, I worked for an indoor playground company that was owned by McDonalds. (It was in Illinois). Parents would bring their children to the indoor playground for birthday parties. There were rooms where the birthday parties would be held.
Almost no one – other than employees, realized that the indoor playground was actually owned by McDonalds. There was a small McDonalds logo on one of the doors that led to outside. You had to look really hard to notice it.
One night, a group of Girl Scouts / Brownies troops came in so they could spend some time crawling through plastic tunnels that included colorful plastic balls, some (soft) punching bags, and slides.
The Girl Scouts / Brownies were fed pizza and a drink, and then were let loose into the tunnels to play.
The leaders of the Girl Scouts / Brownies headed upstairs to a room where the adults to chill out in. This space was up a few stairs and had plastic windows that allowed them to watch their girls (and the girl’s little brothers) from there.
A bit later, a few of the Girl Scout’s leaders rounded up their girls – and the little brothers – and settled them down to sleep inside the tunnels. The tunnels had several spaces where the soft mats had been placed. The Scouts / Brownies brought their own sleeping bags and settled down to sleep.
There was only me and one manager running the place overnight.
Periodically, I would go check on the women in the “parents” room. The TV was on, and a white bronco was on the screen. I had come in to collect plastic cups, wipe off some tables, and take out the trash.
The manager – who was also a woman – asked me what was happening with the white bronco. And I became the go-between that brought pizza and soft drinks to the Girl Scouts and Brownies leaders – and reported back to the manager. From memory, I went into the parents room more than once, and ask if the leaders wanted food or drinks.
When the sun came up, the Scouts and Brownies leaders rounded up their girls (and little brothers) and herded them towards the door. The kids looked super tired, and some had to wait for their parents to come get them.
After every child was picked up by their parents, me and the manager took all the plastic balls out of the ball pits in mesh bags. Those bags went into a section on top of the play area, where they were sterilized. We had just enough time to spill the (now clean) plastic balls back into the ball pits before the morning crew arrived.
NOTE: This post is one that I originally wrote on Mastodon. It was not posted on Tumblr, but is still an interesting story from a job I used to work at.
