Thank you (you know who you are)!

In most cases, before you decide to trust someone, you have some time to decide whether or not that person can be trusted. Before you hand the butcher's apprentice a meat cleaver you let him hack around with a paring knife. Before you hand out that engagement ring you allow a little time to pass in order to weed out the psychopaths. And before you turn over the keys to the nuclear power plant you do back ground checks on the new plant manager (Well, okay, maybe Homer Simpson is the exception!).

Extreme examples, but I think you get my point.

Not so at the paintball field. On nearly a daily basis I give high powered, air rifles and a hundred rounds of ammo to all ages and all manner of unknowns and then turn them loose in the woods to hunt each other down. Sounds almost crazy when I dwell on it for to long.

Of course, we do take some precautions. We vigilantly check equipment for safety and send trained observers (referees) into the woods to enforce rules.

Yet there is always some yucklehead (I just added that word to my spell check dictionary) who takes offense when I ask him to speed check his personal gun or quiz her on the safety video she just slept through! They think maybe I don't trust them.

Trust might be a given out here at the local paintball field but none of us just fell off the turnip truck. We know someone is going to try a suicide run into a bunker full of eleven year olds. Someone is going to pull off his gun plug and thrust the barrel into our face to show us the goo dripping from his barrel. And then, there is always the, "I don't need no safety briefing - I just want to shoot somebody" person!

My refs are instructed to be patient with everyone. But the yuckleheads are frustrating on so many levels. IT'S UNFORTUNATE that we have to bring EVERYONE down to the yucklehead's level since we just don't always have the time to pick and choose who we can trust.

If you are one of our more experienced players, the one who stands in the back of the crowd grinning while we brief the yuckleheads, I SALUTE your patience (This also includes players who may not be experienced but are patient and allow us time to address the yuckleheads). Believe me; it's greatly appreciated. I know of many players who have gone off to play at other fields because they took being lumped among the yuckleheads personal.

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Will work for paint...

Am I missing something, here?? I've been to a few paintball fields over the last few months where I have seen signs that read "Referees Work For Tips"! Silly me. I shelled out over $40,000 last year in referee salaries and bonuses!

Mean and grumpy???

Actually, I'll do it again this year, and do it with pride and pleasure and great personal satisfaction.

Referees work their tails off. At the ripe, old, median age of fifteen they are safety experts, customer service reps, babysitters, diplomatic aids, construction workers, marathon runners, politicians (ugghhh), technical consultants, janitors, public speakers, rule enforcers, teachers, and in many cases, human shields for 180 mph projectiles!

No one can claim they will get rich working at T-Square. For the majority of the teenagers that work here it's their first taste of employment. At $5.50 an hour it probably just covers gas (yeah, right!), new sneakers and a night out on the town (burgers and a movie) with a friend! But when they get lured away from T-Square by the big dollar employers like Burger Queen or Wallyworld they leave better people.

Damn right I pay my refs**. And teach them and feed them and entertain them and tip them with bonuses myself. Besides, I'm getting to old to be dragging my tired butt out into the woods!

Oh, and did I mention that along with the 40,000 plus dollars paid in salaries I paid nearly $10,000 dollars in various state and federal employment and unemployment taxes?

Now THAT makes me mean and grumpy!

**And, YES, T-Square refs can and will GLADLY accept any and all tips.

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