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Soapbox Philosophy: Hawkeye fans, hot dogs and fine arts
Op-Ed · October 16, 2014
Kinnick Stadium seats more than 70,500 fans, so doesn’t it make sense that the concession stand run by the West Branch Fine Arts should cook more than 200 hot dogs and 100 brats?
I know there’s more on the menu and many more concession stands in the stadium, but, come on. What is Aramark thinking to give us such low projections?
Signing up to help work the concession stand, which serves as a fundraiser for the fine arts, I must admit I was a bit nervous.
I heard stories from others who did similar work, talking about drunk, impatient and/or irate customers. But after the end of the game, the worst thing I had to report was clumsiness.
Catching a carpool with Lynn Eggers, who with Diane Rozinek organize the concession stand for the Fine Arts Council, I got to Kinnick early and was given my choice of duties. Hot dogs and brats sounded like an easy enough job for a newbie, so I opted for that one. A couple folks even told me it was the easiest job.
And, honestly, it was pretty easy once Diane showed me how to check the temperature of the hot dogs and brats, where to find things and how to keep things moving in the back section of the stand.
I also had significantly more room to work than the other volunteers, who were packed shoulder to shoulder at the front of the stand just outside the south end zone. The front-line crew had to deal with the customers, handle pretzels, drinks, nachos, pizzas, popcorn and peanuts. Once I had the hot dogs and brats cooked, placed in a bun and wrapped up, I just pawned them off on the folks up front and they packed them into warmers to hand out. They handed the tray back to me and I filled it up again.
There are three garbage cans in the concession stand. One big can for miscellaneous garbage, one small can for wrappers, containers and cups the volunteers personally use (we each were granted an allotment of food and drink) and one small can for “food waste.” This “food waste” can exists for anything we drop on the ground, and, unfortunately, I was the biggest contributor, dropping three things throughout the shift.
So, as I said, I was my own worst enemy that day.
There’s too much to tell of all the things that happened that day, but simply put, the entire group seemed to have a good time. Volunteer Michele Riley had to fight with a fitful popcorn machine and vowed never to do that job again, but the Kinnick staff found someone to fix it and another concession stand sent over boxes of popcorn while our machine was down, so it all worked out.
I got to see a different side of gym teacher and coach Jeff Arp, who gets a kick out of shouting “Peanuts! Popcorn!” and the like, and was impressed with how School Superintendent Kevin Hatfield and school board member Mike Owen came out from behind their desk jobs to handle cash registers in the face a mass of hungry Hawkeye fans.
Volunteer Teresa Kober seemed to know how to do just about anything, helping whomever she could while doing her own job on the pretzels. Volunteer Teresa Meyer worked another register and, despite being one of the smallest volunteers, managed to shout just fine over the din of noise, “Need a souvenir popcorn!” from the opposite side of the room. Brad and Jennifer Wasion kept things moving around Teresa M., from keeping the ice machine stocked to moving food and drinks via bucket line. Volunteer Jacque Gutwein was mixed in the front section as well, doing whatever needed to be done, though I couldn’t see her much with all the machines that filled the island between the front and back part of the stand.
Yep, by the time it was over, my feet were tired and my clothes smelled like popcorn. I was so busy that I only had one bottle of water during my entire shift and I was hungry when I got home. But the time flew by.
One of my other goof-ups was that I forgot to keep track of the hot dogs and brats as I put them on the rolling griddles — large versions of the kind you find in the hot-food section of convenience stores — and prepared a little more than Aramark recommended. Yet, we sold them all.
And when our cashiers had to tell customers that we were out, they were OK with it, and ordered something else.
I was surprised by how much fun I had, all the things I learned and all the things I got to see (I even got my first peek at a live Hawkeye football game, catching a few plays in the fourth quarter before we had to go). And West Branch’s Bo Bower caught his second interception of the season, so how about that?
So if you’re thinking of helping out with the Fine Arts concession stand at Kinnick but are on the fence about it, I would encourage you to give it a try. You’ll have lots of great stories to tell.
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