This summer I wrote my enterprise story on the Carousel Center's parental escort policy. Anybody under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult on Friday and Saturday nights in order to shop at the mall. A few weeks ago, Kathleen posted this on her blog:
"Saturday afternoon, probably around 5 pm, I'm wandering through Carousel Center Mall chatting away on my cell phone with my parents, when a tubby, acne-ridden teenage mall employee, complete with red vest and walkie-talkie, gestures to get my attention and says something to me. Realizing that he is in fact addressing me, rudely ignoring the fact that I am mid-conversation, I look at him inquisitively, at which point he firmly repeats what he just said.
'Miss, you are aware that the under-18 policy is in effect right now?'
'What?'
'The under-18 policy is in effect.'
'Uh, yeah. I'm 23.'
'I'm gonna have to see some ID.'
When I read this I felt Kathleen's rage, but I was also kind of amused, and then it happened to me. I posted her description because it is almost verbatim my conversation last night. I was on the phone with my family and it must have been the same kid because he didn't look 18 himself and he asked the question in the exact same way. The only difference is I offered my I.D. and he made me whip it out. Did he really think I would say I was 23 and offer to show him my I.D. if I couldn't prove it?
The other thing that I find ridiculous is that the policy is meant to keep groups of teenagers from causing trouble, but I was by myself with a shopping bag so I was obviously there to shop.
Speaking of ridiculous, I overheard this on the bus on the way back from the mall:
Girl 1: How do you spell ridiculous?
Girl 2: R-E-D...
These girls go to Syracuse. They were also trying to figure out what year to put on their fake I.D.s in order to be 21. Then they wanted to go to a "sleazy seventies" party and they were trying to figure out what to wear. One girl suggested hippy outfits and the other girl said that everything about the seventies was sleazy.
Needless to say, my ride home made up for being carded.
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3 comments:
I mean SERIOUSLY people. Do we look like gang members? Maybe since we were on our cell phones, we could have been coordinating some massive violent attack on the unsuspecting patrons of Build-A-Bear Workshop...I feel so much safer knowing that they're cracking down on riffraff like us.
You guys are total bangers! It might look like you'r carrying a notebook around, but those astute mall employees are keenly aware of what they really are: semi-automatic weapons that can pump out 20 rounds of armor piercing ammunition in under a minute.
Wait, ridiculous isn't spelled with an "e"?
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