The Battle of Chrysler Farm (not about the Battle of Chrysler Farm)
See this place above? That's the Visitor Center at the Battle of Chrysler Farm Historic Site at 13740 County Road 2, Morrisburg, Ontario, Canada and have I got a small story for you!
This story happened 10 years ago, today! I took a day trip over to Morrisburg but I knew I didn't want to pay the full admission price to Upper Canada Village, especially since I set out mid-afternoon. That's OK since the gift shop is technically outside of the admission area, and they sell their famous fresh bread in the shop. That's 2 bonuses! Plus I was intending on visiting the garden and historical site area that is free just next door. I think Upper Canada Village had just installed paid parking so parking for the historical site was free and literally right in the same field.
I did have a nice stroll up to the gardens, which is just in front of the tree line, in the center of this photo above.
(The view back to the historical site from the Rose Garden.)
I wandered back and around the hill a bit but there were (as ALWAYS) aggressive Canadian geese around, so I had to give them a wide berth or they would honk and chase me.
So going up to the visitor center, I thought it was curious that the front door was open.
The door was sort of stuck open, or maybe propped. I thought it was big enough to get a goose through so whoever is inside must be living dangerously. But it was also open enough for me to slip inside without touching it. So I did.
There was the entry desk, a computer, an open water bottle, and not seen in this photo, some keys. But no person.
I've been here before so I know that the visitor center is basically 2 rooms. This anteroom that is long and narrow with artifacts in cases and then a larger room with a rudimentary fiber-optic display that re-enacts the battle.
But I could not hear anything. I walked down the room, looking at the cases; old guns, uniforms, that sort of thing. I remember seeing significant cob webs at the far end. Still, no one.
At the end, I turned on my heel to enter the other room. Immediately I saw a few dressed up mannequins (British solders), and the display area and wooden benches. It was closed in.
Then I saw her.
She was laying on her back one of the wooden benches-- out of sight in my photo above-- and she was sleeping; totally out. She didn't stir.
It was one of those moments where you calculate all of the possible excuses you could make in under 2 seconds for how I got into the visitor's center without her hearing (uhm, open goose door? I'm alone so not talking? I'm a creep?) I opted for Plan Z: I was never here and I'm outta here; just to get out without waking her now.
But first, I had one other emotion wash over me.
I was mad.
I was mad that she was obviously sleeping on the job.
I justified that she had a computer, and I guess from the photo I took, cookies and water. Since I worked at an online university, I thought "You could be going to college right now, not sleeping away your summer job!"
I managed to walk out doing that kind of walk when you want to be silent, letting your foot roll on to and off of the floor evenly.
I slipped back out the goose hatch and eventually left the site to go home. I thought about writing something up and posting it on Facebook, but I knew if I said anything, she'd be fired. The risk to the visitor's center and to herself personally was way too high; her employment would not survive. It's clear to me that she was a summer worker, just pulling a paycheck.
It's 10 years since that happened and I was thinking about that story. It came to me.
I have no right to be angry. I'm ashamed to say that I had a job once that was so lax that I could snooze while I was on the clock. The situation was that the work was normally significant and constant. But we had changed a procedure and my workload dropped off. My boss didn't notice and still expected me to be just as busy. Part of my job required me to go offsite for a full morning 3x a week. I simply didn't need to be gone for that long--- but, instead of doing my work and coming back, I stayed out and snoozed in my car in parking spot.
It was medium-quality hooky; not top notch hooky because doing it was stupid. Top notch would be not working for a GD good reason, like I did when I sneaked away for my final dissertation residency and didn't tell anyone at my online job for a day. I just kept my head really low and checked email constantly.
So I've been where she was. She was bored-- I can see that now. And what she decided to do with her time was her business. I get that the Visitor's Center could only be interesting so much and then it was boring.
Still, I wish she had made better choices. And that poor place, it looks closed now...I don't see any listing of the Visitor Center being open.
Oh, it's a shame, but...the place was in decay.
The entire site is ripe for a nice AR history overlay...Standing on the site and looking around, one can think of the battle happening here and the strategic movement of troops to different places.
For the record, as a boss, I would advise the folks working for me that they were welcome to try playing hooky, but the key is to NOT GET CAUGHT. If I catch them, it's not hooky anymore.
I hope that young lady has gone off to fantastical great things in her life. I change my anger now to a blessing for her. I hope she's off somewhere chomping on some yummy bread, remembering that summer 10 years ago when she worked in a run-down Visitor's Center, but at least she could get in a snooze on those hard wooden benches. You needed a nap before out running the geese.
