The Fee Wingers

I work in an area that collects fees. They have a group of fee collectors that come from all walks of life. But we will get to that later. We have one road into the area and we used to have this wonderful little shack where they collected fees. It was about the size of a bathroom, but without the sink, toilet, and tub. Sometimes there would be 2 or 3 people in that little booth. I could never understand why because only one could collect fees out the window. I always thought the other one was for company. Anyway, we moved the collectors down the road a bit to a beautiful new, blocking my view of the valley, gas station looking building. Now there are two booths and they have to scream across one lane to talk to the other person. Wonder if they are lonely. The funniest thing is that sometimes both lanes are open and we still have a line down the road because the visitors don't realize the other lane is there. Oh well, visitor's lose as usual.

Anyway, when we had the one shack, I had to drive by them no matter what because it was the only place into the area. However, now with the beautiful new, blocking my view of the valley, gas station looking building, I seldom go through there because there is a by-pass road. I think this might disappoint them a little. And here's why...When I used to go through the one shack I would always give them a treat of some sort. I don't know why this started, most likely because I always have a snack for myself and I offered it one time. Then everytime I came through they expected me to give them a snack. Almost like when the bell would ring in Pavolov's study. Little did they know that most of the time, their snacks were food of mine that was going to go bad and I needed to get rid of it. Guess I can't pull that anymore. The treats started getting better in my book. There was pringles (I am always eating those), Krispy Kreme donuts, wheat thins, and sometimes candy. I am just a generous person.

The thing that sucks with the beautiful new, blocking my view of the valley, gas station looking building is that when I drop off a treat to one booth and the second one is open, then I have to make this big u-turn to deliver the second donut. The other day I drove through the north booth and asked the collector if she wanted a donut. She said no and then I said it was a Krispy Kreme donut. OH YES. Then I drove to the other booth and dropped one off there.

So some of the collectors often meet on a Wednesday night for wings and soda. There is mostly just three of them from fees and sometimes other departments join them. I gave them my blogspot page address to read one wing-night. So this afternoon I was changing vehicles reluctantly and decided I would drive through the fee booth. The main reason I drove through was because while I was cleaning out some of my stuff, I found a box of Honey Wheat Thins. When I pulled up to the south booth, I gave the box to Goosebumps and said she could have the whole box. Honestly, I don't know how long it has been there. Anyway, she said that I should write a story about the wing-night group. But how do you write a story about a bunch of weirdos? Easily of course...

Why would I call her Goosebumps? It is 100 degrees and she has a jacket on? What is with that? What exactly is she hiding? She always is carrying this backpack as well. It is the weirdest thing. I think she might be some sort of spy for the federal government. Also, at wing-night (10 cents a piece) she has them cook the wings super, duper leather on bone so barely any meat is left. Now what is the point of that? Plus she orders too many to eat and then takes them home. But the jacket, now that is weird.

There is also Big Bear. This guy is just as weird. He has the driest humor, but he is one of the funniest people I know. He kind of looks like a big bear cub. I have yet to see him eat wings at wing-night, but then neither do I when I go. He always used to get 25 wings and a soda. He's been on a wingless diet lately from my sources.

And lastly with the 3 wingers, is Ranger Smith. Do you all know who Ranger Smith is? He is the ranger from Yogi Bear. Don't ask how I came up with this, but when I was passing the booth today I thought that was a good name for him. He is constantly calling the LE complaining about people driving around the wrong way. He is very observant though as he possibly observed the German visitors with an open container the other day. He often brings his wife to wing-night. And I think he especially likes the offerings that I hand out at the window.

I am sure as the time progresses along this summer, I will come up with more and more great stories of these characters. But I just have to say for all the times I have brought them goodies while passing through the booth, I have never been bought a beer at wing-night.