Age and Weight Guessing

JW65 · Post by **JW65** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 8:49 pm

Gurnee Park: There was a booth in Hometown Square with an attendant who would guess your age and weight. The customer would decide if he or she wanted to have his or her weight or age guessed. If the attendant was off by too many years or too many pounds, the customer would win a prize. (usually a stuffed WB character)

Can anyone remember the number of years and the number of pounds they could be off? Was this a part of the Santa Clara park? This may still be in the Gurnee park today, I am not sure.

I remember this booth from when I went to the park in the 1980s. I am not sure whether or not it was from when Marriott's owned the park.

Santa Cruisin · Post by **Santa Cruisin** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 8:56 pm

I think there were two of these in the Santa Clara park. An "Amazing Alfredo" in the County Fair and an "Amazing Alfredeux" in Orleans Place.

Post by **steven** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 9:37 pm

One Alfredo is a member of this discussion forum. I'm sure that he can give us an authoritative answer whenever he sees this topic.

Steven

Mat · Post by **Mat** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 8:08 pm

I worked as the Amazing Alfredo in the summer 1983 at the Santa Clara MGA.

MGA did have two Alfredo's. One in the County Fair and the other in Orleans Place. Alfredo was actually called Alfreduex in OP.

On a busy day, over 500 guests would pony up a buck (it's now two dollars) to have me guess either their weight ,within three pounds, their age within two years or their month of birth within two months. Everyone thought there was some great trick in guessing these things, but in reality it was just a guess. Of course, the park didn't mind if we won or not. If we won, the park got the entire buck, if I guessed incorrectly; the park would pay out a seventeen cent prize.

There were some days, by just the laws of averages that I would be on fire. I remember guessing correctly 45 times in a row....people thought that I was so amazing, but again, it was just a numbers game.

When I tell people today that I was Amazing Alfredo at MGA, they immediately want me to guess them. . . And you know what? I still got it.

JW65 · Post by **JW65** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 10:19 pm

Mat:

Thanks for the detailed and honest reply, Oh Noble and Wise Alfredo! You seemed to enjoy guessing the age or weight of guests. That is cool! What was a typical 17 cent prize? A plushy? If so, what kinds?

Jeff (Gurnee MGA patron from 1977 - 1984)

Mat · Post by **Mat** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 11:27 pm

The most popular prizes was a colored MGA visor. It said, "I beat the Amazing Alfredo".

I wish I had one of those visors today.

ewilson · Post by **ewilson** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 6:30 pm

The name of the prize usually given out in the early years was called a Sheldon. It was a one foot tall furry yellow Big Bird of which for some reason I have one at home. I had a friend who worked in games in the werehouse and said that they cost the park 90 cents each and it is what they used to go through the most of. I guess later on they went to the cheaper visors.

I remember as a character going and working with the Alfredos. They would have us be like guest stars at guessing. I remember it was pretty easy considering the odds you had. If you could be 2 months off that ment that by just saying any month it would cover 5 of the 12 months. Mostly it was kids who would ask weight and with having a range of 7 pounds for someone that was probably under 100 pounds was pretty easy.

PGA ROCKS · Post by **PGA ROCKS** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 8:19 pm

I got a prize from one of these guys. It was in the early nineties. It was a green teddy bear that I slept with for many years. Oh, the memories.

jenjenrebecca · Post by **jenjenrebecca** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 6:32 pm

Mat wrote:I worked as the Amazing Alfredo in the summer 1983 at the Santa Clara MGA.

MGA did have two Alfredo's. One in the County Fair and the other in Orleans Place. Alfredo was actually called Alfreduex in OP.

On a busy day, over 500 guests would pony up a buck (it's now two dollars) to have me guess either their weight ,within three pounds, their age within two years or their month of birth within two months. Everyone thought there was some great trick in guessing these things, but in reality it was just a guess. Of course, the park didn't mind if we won or not. If we won, the park got the entire buck, if I guessed incorrectly; the park would pay out a seventeen cent prize.

There were some days, by just the laws of averages that I would be on fire. I remember guessing correctly 45 times in a row....people thought that I was so amazing, but again, it was just a numbers game.

When I tell people today that I was Amazing Alfredo at MGA, they immediately want me to guess them. . . And you know what? I still got it.

I got snagged from the booth games one afternoon to do Alfredo and was so surprised that no one had any advice, other than "Just guess", lol! My favorite one was this guy who was dripping wet from one of the water rides, and I nailed his weight, spot on. He thought I cheated, and I was just as incredulous.

Conman · Post by **Conman** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 6:03 pm

As an area lead in games I would often provide breaks for the Amazing Alfredo's or Alfredeux's in Santa Clara or I would go out and help. As I remember the scale only went up to about 250 LBS.

One time a very heavy set woman asked me to guess her weight, but told me that the scale didn't go high enough to accurately report her weight. I told her that as long as she didn't mind telling the rest of the crowd her weight I would write down my answer first and then she could tell the crowd her weight. Since she had already told me the scale didn't go high enough I had a head start. I guessed her weight at 294. Now guessing someone's weight to high was a problem and a few times some women hit me, so I was careful. Amazingly I was right on the nose. The woman threw a fit thinking that I had some kind of scale under the floor that allowed me to cheat. As some of the other Alfredos and Alfredeuxs said, it was luck but if you were good you learned.

It is true, when I tell people that I did this at Great America, they have me guess and I am still pretty good. It was one of the better jobs I had at the park!

JW65 · Post by **JW65** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 6:58 pm

Okay David, guess my age and weight!

There are some clues in the threads as to how old I am, but I am not giving any clues for my weight!

JW

Glorfindel7 · Post by **Glorfindel7** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 8:27 pm

JW,

I would guess 41 (based on screenname if year is 1965)....
As for weight... I'll make a run of the mill guess of 175 pounds...

(My real name is David as well

but I know you mean the amazing alfredeaux/alfredo....)

JW65 · Post by **JW65** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 7:37 pm

David,

I am 40 years old, 6' 193 lbs. Not bad for not seeing a picture of me.

JW

Mat · Post by **Mat** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 10:20 pm

JW65 wrote:David,

I am 40 years old, 6' 193 lbs. Not bad for not seeing a picture of me.

JW

One of the greatest things about being Alfredo was after a while you learned to use that kind of creativity to guess "other stuff". I remember when a guest would reach into his/her bag or purse (to get the dollar to pay); sometimes you would see their name on something. Maybe a driver's license or a monogrammed item. I would immediately write down their name and when I asked the guest their name (we would always ask the guest's name), they would almost fall over when I had "guessed" their correct name. We had lots of moments like these.

I think 26 years later, I still have that keen ability to "pay attention" to the small stuff like a hidden name. It's amazing the things we take away from lasting moments in our life.

Mat

GREATAMERICAparks.com

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