My sophomore house, where I lived with JakeMy 5 future roommates had all gone home for the summer, but three of them had found sublets. There were two girls and Jake, it was a lot like The Real World. One girl was the semi-girlfriend of a roommate, the other girl wore a shirt that read "V is for Vegan" and for that reason I never really talked to her. But Jake, he was the life of that house and my summer. Jake didn't go to Michigan, but went to Washtenaw Community College. He was from the nearby town of Saline, MI which is about 20 minutes south of Ann Arbor. Whether he was around or not, his crew was always at the house. By crew I mean like 8-10 guys that I got to know pretty well that summer. They were mostly kids that I would have never hung out with in High School, who just hung around the house and drank 40's and sold drugs. I also became pretty good friends with a few them, and would occasionally party with them the rest of my college career.
Like I said earlier, most of my friends had gone home for the summer, so I didn't really have too much of a social network. In the spring I was taking 8 credits of math and physics which equals a full semester course load. I was also training to become a bus driver, a job which I would hold for the next three years. But whenever I would come home there would always be guys hanging out. About once a week I would come home and Jake had bought something for the house, sometimes furniture, sometimes something completely random. Whenever I would ask him about it he would always respond "I got it for cheap". Eventually I just stopped asking because I had a pretty good idea. I didn't care much, because even though I shouldn't have, I trusted Jake. And it turns out he came through a couple of times.
Jake liked to throw parties at our house. I liked them too because I didn't have many other parties to go to, and usually his crew would pay for the keg. They always seemed like there were too many high school kids, but I got the impression that Jake was such hot shit at his High School that even a year after he left everyone wanted to go to one of his parties. Jake's parties were always huge and packed. They would usually get busted pretty early, and once by dumb luck I got stuck taking the noise violation. Jake knew that it was his party and mostly his friends and offered to pay for it. I knew he should have, but up until then I didn't really think he would have.
For a long time I never knew how he always had money to pay for things. He had a job at a water park and he did some small time drug deals on the side, but it didn't quite ever equal out. Late one night during the summer he told me how he made all his cash over a few 40's on the porch. What Jake would do is always try to work the cashier at the water park where kids got in for $3 and adults for $5. What he would do is charge everyone as adults, tell the customers the right amount and pocket the difference. So if 2 adults came in with 3 kids, he would enter them in the computer as 4 adults and 1 kid but then charge them $19. He would then pocket the $4 difference. Then he would come home with wads of fat cash.
What always amazed me about Jake was the for someone that didn't even go to U of M (at that time) he was amazingly connected. Everyone knew him. He knew some of my friends who lived in the Box house. One of the old box guys Brent had been buying beer for one kid in his crew for years. For the next three years after I lived with Jake I would see him around. Always at the bar, around campus and at parties. He would always stop what he was doing and take a shot with me. He would usually show up to Box tailgates and our parties. He was a great friend to have, because he was loyal. He would stand up and get into fights for us. The kid who could kick the crap out of anyone is always a good friend to have.
That summer was excellent because there were always visitors around, my future roommates, my friends, and Jake and his crew. Living with Jake was a total trip. He was the first of a streak of roommates that who weren't great roommates, but totally amazing people to live with. I think, without Jake in that house the summer would have gone down as a boring wash.
Like I said earlier, most of my friends had gone home for the summer, so I didn't really have too much of a social network. In the spring I was taking 8 credits of math and physics which equals a full semester course load. I was also training to become a bus driver, a job which I would hold for the next three years. But whenever I would come home there would always be guys hanging out. About once a week I would come home and Jake had bought something for the house, sometimes furniture, sometimes something completely random. Whenever I would ask him about it he would always respond "I got it for cheap". Eventually I just stopped asking because I had a pretty good idea. I didn't care much, because even though I shouldn't have, I trusted Jake. And it turns out he came through a couple of times.
Jake liked to throw parties at our house. I liked them too because I didn't have many other parties to go to, and usually his crew would pay for the keg. They always seemed like there were too many high school kids, but I got the impression that Jake was such hot shit at his High School that even a year after he left everyone wanted to go to one of his parties. Jake's parties were always huge and packed. They would usually get busted pretty early, and once by dumb luck I got stuck taking the noise violation. Jake knew that it was his party and mostly his friends and offered to pay for it. I knew he should have, but up until then I didn't really think he would have.
For a long time I never knew how he always had money to pay for things. He had a job at a water park and he did some small time drug deals on the side, but it didn't quite ever equal out. Late one night during the summer he told me how he made all his cash over a few 40's on the porch. What Jake would do is always try to work the cashier at the water park where kids got in for $3 and adults for $5. What he would do is charge everyone as adults, tell the customers the right amount and pocket the difference. So if 2 adults came in with 3 kids, he would enter them in the computer as 4 adults and 1 kid but then charge them $19. He would then pocket the $4 difference. Then he would come home with wads of fat cash.
What always amazed me about Jake was the for someone that didn't even go to U of M (at that time) he was amazingly connected. Everyone knew him. He knew some of my friends who lived in the Box house. One of the old box guys Brent had been buying beer for one kid in his crew for years. For the next three years after I lived with Jake I would see him around. Always at the bar, around campus and at parties. He would always stop what he was doing and take a shot with me. He would usually show up to Box tailgates and our parties. He was a great friend to have, because he was loyal. He would stand up and get into fights for us. The kid who could kick the crap out of anyone is always a good friend to have.
That summer was excellent because there were always visitors around, my future roommates, my friends, and Jake and his crew. Living with Jake was a total trip. He was the first of a streak of roommates that who weren't great roommates, but totally amazing people to live with. I think, without Jake in that house the summer would have gone down as a boring wash.
7 comments:
I'm confused about how the water park scheme worked.
It would seem that the only way he would get extra cash would be to overcharge the customer and then pocket the difference, or under-bill in the system and charge the customer the correct amount, and keep the difference.
For your example of 2 adults and 3 kids, he should charge $19 ($5 x 2, $3 x $3). If he rang it in as 4 adults and 1 kid (as you described), wouldn't the register expect $23 ($5 x 4, $3 x 1). What "difference" is he pocketing? What am I missing?
To me, it would only seem to work if he rang it up as, say, 3 adults no kids ($15) and kept the extra $4. Or overcharged the family, rang it in properly, and kept difference.
I may be missing something. Help me out, por favor.
You're correct and I messed up my description of how it worked. He would put in the computer that all but one adults were kids, and not all the kids were adults. So in the 2 adults and 3 kids scenario:
He would enter 1 adult and 4 kids into the computer which would total $17. He would then charge them the correct amount which was $19 and keep the two dollars.
He had to always enter a least 1 adult in the computer because children weren't allowed in the park unsupervised. But if a group of six adults came he would make $10. The amount he could make per group was (# of adults -1)*$2
Good catch on the error in my explanation. I'm just surprised that someone actually read the middle paragraphs.
I will now sleep easy.
the profiles of pretty much everyone who lived in box should be pretty interesting...looking forward to it.
you tellin' me the dynasty wouldn't have been enough that summer?!?!?!
Brandon Beer-Minor?
You guessed it, Brandon Beer-Minor. The kid almost deserves his own blog post. He was born 30 years too late.
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