What does A-1 do? Good question. The company slogan is "We are the party professionals". We specialize in a plethora of rental party necessities. Tents, tables, chairs, inflatables, side wall, Super Coolers and much much more are what you can rent at our everyday slightly inflated price.
Work atmosphere:
Varies on a day-to-day basis. It could be an easy day of driving around the QCA in an outdated box truck without a CD player. This summer has made me realize how much the radio sucks also. I am getting a bit sidetracked now, but this has to be brought to your attention. I have been known to enjoy a good Rap/Hip-Hop track, so the easiest way to satisfy that is by tuning into Groove 92.5. Groove 92.5 is incredibly inconsistent. You go from enjoying a catchy Lil' Wayne song to listening to an unnamed African American artist singing about love (every song like that says the word "baby" around 45 times). The love song to actual rap song ratio is about 3:1. Needless to say, 92.5 is not the best option when it comes to the radio. B100 also has many flaws. Sure, they have Red Hot Brian Scott and Tony Tone, but does not help their cause. Their station is way too repetitive and predictable. I'm not listening to the radio right now, but if I had to guess.. I bet it is "Your Love Is My Drug" by Ke$ha, followed by "It's Not Over" by Chris Daughtry, after that it is probably a commercial. And, it will be like that probably for two months. Nothing ever changes.. I don't even think half of the "rock" songs they play are popular. Is Nickleback really that good? Nope. Is Battlefield by Jordan Sparks an American classic? Not a chance! But by the way the radio broadcast is set up, they make it seem like it.
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Like I said earlier, there is no average day on the job, which is very refreshing. I am not sitting at a table all day making contraptions that scare birds away (Brian & Traub). Our hardest days are when we get the whole crew of around 12 out to a job site to set up a monster party and/or festival. We have recently been putting in consisent 10-12 hour days.. rough. Sturgis on The River is coming up, you're welcome bikers. Greek Fest is slated for this Friday, it's the least we could do. Our squad of college kids, troubled young adults, and people who just enjoy manual labor cater great events for the area to enjoy all the time.
Here are an example of a rough day/weekend:
Last Friday, the A-1 Crew left the shop in hopes of a relaxing day of setting up tents down along the banks of the Mississippi. I arrived at the Freight House/Penguins Comedy Club around 9am on Friday. When I got there, Mikey, Justin and Blake were already building the frame to both the 40 x 40 tent and the 40 x 120 tent. The three of us took off our shirts upon my arrival then continued to construct our dilapidated piece of semi-shelter. The frames were finished around noon, we carried our momentum right until our lunch break. The four of us traveled a few blocks into Downtown D-Port to the local Subway. Justin & I got our usual Buffalo Chicken footlong, while Blake ordered his Seafood Sensation. Heading back to the Freight House we expected the construction of the tents to go smoothly and we planned on leaving the site around 5pm, giving us a solid 9-hour shift. This was not the case. The hours kept creeping on us like Ronnie from Jersey Shore. Before we knew it, it was 8pm. We had worked 12 hours and had no intentions of doing anything more productive for the rest of the evening. The sky darkened, not because it was getting late, instead it was due to a storm front to likes of something we had not seen in days. As Justin, Luke and I departed from the job site, the wind picked up.. our tents. By the time we were crossing the I-74 Bridge to head back to our beloved state, all the work we had put in over the past 12 hours was erased; Poles snapped, tables smashed, and hard work gone to waste. While the storm was dominating our work, Justin, Luke and I felt it was in our best interest to attend a get together with our friends, even though we knew we would be getting the 'call to the pen' from our boss in the coming hours. Sure enough, around 10pm we were called back to the Freight House to clean up the mess that we didn't make. We worked there for about two hours then returned to the gathering of our friends. We stayed at the shindig for a few hours, leaving at 2am. I slept with Luke in my bed while Blake seemed cozy in my Illinois Snuggie. Blake also had a sleeping partner, my brother's dog, Brodie. Needless to say, Blake and Brodie were beyond comfy on my floor. Honk, Honk.. Just 90 minutes later, Justin is in my driveway alerting us to wake up. For those who have read 'The Lord of the Flies', the honking was equivalent to the conch shell signaling for all the members to adjourn. Just imagine our boss getting to the top of the Mississippi Valley, climbing a step ladder and yelling these words, "A-1 Allllll Starrrrrs, Asssssemmmmmble". We did just that, we crawled out of my house after popping a few Advil to give our bodies a fair chance to recoup. We worked 4am to Noon that day, then recieved a 3 hour nap then returned for 4 more hours of taking apart tents and retrieving chairs. When we got off work at 8pm on Saturday, we had worked 26 hours out of the last 36 hours. Not a good experience. If you were wondering where J-Town was at during this whole ordeal, he was enjoying a Bud Light at a bar in the Wisconsin Dells. Hope you had a fun vacation Jordan, it was well-timed.
Here is my Summer 2010 A-1 Rental All Star Awards:
Most Valuable Worker: Mikey Wooden (6 years of A-1 experience)
Most Improved: Andy Hutchins
Laziest Worker: Rich
Person You Would Least Like To Be Stuck With on a Trip To Kewanee: Probably Jason & Rich
Bo$$ Hog of the Summer: Edward
Rookie of the Year: Derek Dye (Not that I deserve it, I just don't think anyone else qualifies)
1st Team All A-1:
- Andy Hutchins
- Mikey Wooden
- Ed "Da Bo$$"
- Greg "G-Spot"
- Zach "Zachalicious Dirty Dishes" Esterdahl
2nd Team All A-1:
- Gina (Ed's Wife)
- Justin Blondell
- Corey Waz
- Jason.. by default
- Andy Nelson
3rd Team All A-1:
- Jordan Townsend
- Ray Dukes
- Luke Wood
- Adam "Fro" Johnson
- Kerry "Fupa"
Not So Honorable Mention: Blake Lanum, Derek Dye, Rich
Some miscellaneous items to touch upon:
- The best days at work are when you are with three of your pals going to various places picking up and dropping off tables and chairs. Nothing beats that.
- We need to make an A-1 Calender showing off the chisled body of Ray Dukes on forklift with minimal clothing, or Blake Lanum putting up sidewall shirtless, or maybe even all the crew working together to hold up a giant center pole.
- We also need to schedule a Softball game with AAA Rents, they're our rivals.
- Rich can't drive.
- Cut-off's and athletic shorts are a must.
- Be prepared to get life lessons everyday, even from the shadiest of characters.
- Within 3 minutes of riding in the same Budget Truck as Rich, you will hear about the drama that goes on in his Soap Opera of a life. The last I heard, his girlfriend somehow lives 2 hours away in a town called Canton. She 'Facebook chatted' Rich telling him to "Send money and tampons".. I couldn't make that up.
- The pay is rough, minimum wage is a buzzkill.
- You start to realize that McDonald's food is really that bad.
- You get back to your 'High School Waking Up Schedule' consisting of getting up around 7:40, grabbing some Mini Muffins and a Milk Chug and heading to work.
- Carpooling becomes an art form. We all take turns on picking up the crew to head to work.
- You do get quite the tan, but beware of the cut-off tan.
- I keep telling myself to buy a pair of work gloves, but it never seems to happen. My hands have paid the price.
I feel that I should try to promote the company here. If any of you out there need help catering your party needs, please call us at (309)762-7571 and ask for Ray Dukes.
I will leave you with these picture to give you a look of what we are all about here at A-1.
this is me and J-Town in the box truck after recieveing our complimentary John Deere hats.
nice lookin' tent and shrubbery arrangement.
this is me taking a well deserved rest on the skid loader.
Thank You for reading!
