Teamwork

One major part of my job is breakdown. We breakdown our ropes as close to the back of the parade as possible to make it seem like no parade ever existed and facilitate the movement of the gigantic swarm of guests that always ensues shortly after a parade. The parade route is, in a way, cut in half when it comes to breakdown. The breakdown process in the west is entirely different than in the south.

For this post, though, I will only explain breakdown for the west. Each person gets two position, one for during the parade, and one for breakdown.

The clipper begins the process by going to each of the posts (or stanchions) and unclipping the ropes from the stanchion and then clipping them to each other. The stanchion puller grabs the stanchion and puts it on the nearby cart pulled by the cart puller. The plugger comes next putting the plug in the hole left by the stanchion. At the rear of the process comes the roller who rolls up the rope on a heavy roll they wear on their chest. Both sides of the route break down at the same time, and to be sure each roller is the same distance behind the back of the parade, there are two rope holders that each have one hand on their roller and one hand on a rope and their job is to push of pull the roller to ensure both sides are breaking down at the same speed.

Ideally, this entire process remains within ten feet of the back of the parade. I'm proud to say we usually do a very good job, too, and it's very fun when we all get it right! But we really heavily, if not, entirely on teamwork to get the job done.

The two hardest jobs are clipper and roller. The ropes are very tight, so you have to be strong to get some of the clips off. I've even had guests help me with it a few times after watching me struggle. The clipper also has to be careful not to cut their hand open (something I've also done) because if you start bleeding you are no longer allowed to help in the breakdown process at all. No bleeding on ropes because we have to make new ones and that takes forever!

Roller is hard because you have to be constantly moving your arm rolling up the rope and the roll gets very, very heavy near the end. It's also hard because if the clipper or others have trouble and get behind, you have to make up for it by suddenly rolling super fast. The third reason it's the hardest is that it's very easy to lose the roll. By "lose the roll" I mean the rope sometimes gets off the roll track and instead gets stuck between where your hand is on the handle and the actual roll it's supposed to be on. When you lose the roll, like cutting your finger open, your done with the breakdown process and kicked off the route and someone else has to jump in and roll the rest by hand which is way harder than using the roll.

The reason I'm explaining this is partly for my own memory's sake, but also because I have learned a lot from this breakdown process. I've learned a lot about team work and learning how people work together to accomplish things.

I have stories, but this post is long enough for now. This post may (or may not) be a precursor to other future posts and stories about my job and things I've learned, so be sure to remember it. :)