Gurnee Employees

[nedge32]

regarding this post --

during my tenure, there was a decent amount of foreign students who worked in rides. most of them spoke pretty good english and had accents that were pretty cool.

i commuted from racine with my girlfriend everyday and it wasn't too long of a drive. i knew some people who were from milwaukee, kenosha and various suburbs in IL.

[klemrock]

Hello!

I was one of those stuck-up people from SHOWS (Gurnee) from 1982-1987.
My first position was a Theatre Attendant at Theatre Royale, scraping gum and puke off the floor. Yeah!

The people I worked with were simply CRAZY!
The casts of the BB show, the Magic Show, and the nighttime Country Music show taught me how to party. That was when I really looked forward to coming to work.

BTW, my starting rate was $3.15/hour. Gas was under a dollar a gallon.
Life was good.

My second position was as a Character host/attendant, which soon turned into my third position of Character. WHAT A GREAT JOB!!!

Later, I became a travelling character, helping to help open such renown attractions such as AUTOWORLD in Flint, Michigan . On that trip, we hit a huge deer with the company van.

There were SO MANY wonderful people from SHOWS that I lost touch with. The upcoming reunion might be fun, but almost nobody I know has signed up yet (or their names have changed).

If you remember me or any of those crazy people, give a shout here or email me!

Jim Klem (often referred to as "Quigley")
klemrock@comcast.net

[steven]

Hi, Jim,

I didn't know too many shows people back in Gurnee. If you can make it to the reunion, you should probably go anyway. Surely you'll see familiar faces once you're there.

Steven

[klemrock]

Thanks, Steve. I probably will.
Everyone seemed friendly back then.
That's one of the reasons MGA was so fun!

[UAORDStew]

For this season FullTime Mgmt, went out and crossed the globe to various parts and hired many different exchange students. Many of them working throughout the park this season hail from South Africa. You will see a lot of them working in the water park as life guards.

Over the years I've been able to meet many interesting exchange students and have kept in touch with a few. The nice thing is that with my full time job flying I get the opportunity to see a few that came from the UK every so often when I get a London trip. Anyhoo.....it's nice to have them and to have the opportunity to learn different cultures!!!

[BrianPlencner]

For this season FullTime Mgmt, went out and crossed the globe to various parts and hired many different exchange students. Many of them working throughout the park this season hail from South Africa. You will see a lot of them working in the water park as life guards.

I agree. There is a really nice woman who is on the Eagle queue who is from South Africa. It was great talking to her between cycles, and learning about her culture. We also had a good talk about the differences in names. Like what we call a traffic light, what they do, etc.

Its a great experience for everyone involved.

[dlawick]

Great site!

I worked in HTS in '76 (General Store) and '77 (Opera Sweet Shop). In '77, I remember a co-worker from a foreign country (Milwaukee) who roomed at a school in Lake Forest.

As for the earlier discussion of wages, my hourly rate in '76 was $2.20 and in '77 was $2.35. In spite of the pay, it was great times, great friends, great memories!

Was at the park this past Sat. 5/20 and so much has changed - but to GA's credit, a lot has stayed the same.

Does anyone else remember from the summer of '77 the t-shirts that were made for employees? It had a cartoon guy lounging out in "Bugs ears" with the saying, "I'm off today - Summer of '77" Obviously, we wore them in the park on our days off. Mine is still in good shape altho my 16 yr old daughter has claimed it. I also used to have one of the straw hats that we guys used to wear on occasion.

Was it really 29-30 yrs. ago?

[MGA1]

I worked in the Gurnee park from 1977-1982. During the Marriott years, I do not recall meeting any foreign-national employees.

Most of the 3,000+ employees came from within 15-20 minutes of the park...the large majority lived between Gurnee and East to Waukegan; West to Round Lake Park; North to Kenosha, WI; and South to Lake Forest. At that time, I'd say at least 50% of the employees were college age students, 40% were high school students, and 10% were others...mostly senior citizens but with a few school teachers and housewives thrown in the mix. Of course there were some, like myself, who commuted from much further.

During my first season, I was kinda of an oddity since I lived in Oak Lawn, IL which is 55 miles south of Gurnee on the Illinois Tollway. It took me over 1:15 door to door to get to the park (without traffic). Also in 1977, gasoline was .55/gallon. For the 1978 season, I drove from Oak Lawn during the Spring and Fall weekends since I was still in high school but during the summer, I rented a dorm room at the now defunct Barat College in Lake Forest, IL. Barat College was a very small Catholic girls school with two dorms. The nicer dorm they used for Barat summer school students...all female...we weren't even allowed into that dorm.

The college rented rooms in the older dorm to Great America employees (or anyone else that needed a place to live) for the summer. This housing program wasn't coordinated by Great America...you were totally on your own to find a place to live and transportation to the park. I remember having to pay cash each week for the room. It was only $40/week if I remember correct. I had my own room but there was a community bathroom. The weird thing (remember it's 1978) was that the floor was coed and there was only one bathroom on the floor since it was an all-girls school. It was a little weird being in the bathroom at the same time as the girls but I honestly never heard of any problems or witnessed anything inappropriate going on in there. It was all stalls, no urinals of course. And each shower stall was separate and had a small private dressing area in from of each shower.

I recently heard that as of 2008 SFGA has limited summer housing available through UW-Parkside in Kenosha and also some space at an unused section of a VA hospital in North Chicago, IL. Most of these summer housing spaces are used by SFGA International student program and some other out-of-state employees.

[Tech Services 1]

Later, I became a travelling character, helping to help open such renown attractions such as AUTOWORLD in Flint, Michigan . On that trip, we hit a huge deer with the company van.

Jim Klem (often referred to as "Quigley")
klemrock@comcast.net

Holy cow-
I can't believe I haven't seen this old post from Klemrock before now!

Was that van the big blue Marketing van that had the extended height roof? I remember a group coming back from a road trip and hitting a deer! There was a good size bash on the front of the van, and we pulled a big bunch of deer hair from the chrome trim.
That had to be the same trip you described!
Who was driving the van at the time? I remember they were pretty freaked out from the ordeal.


-PPG