I have some good ones from working as a ranger at a scout camp this summer
There was this one latrine that the leech field backed up on constantly. Every time we would go up and take a look, to make sure it was the usual problem (rainwater flooding the leech field and cesspit). We had already been up twice that week, and explained to everyone in the site what was causing it. So me and another ranger get up to the campsite, and there is a leader pulling apart the plumbing to the urinals, where the water had popped up this time. He was cutting a the PVC pipe with the little saw on his swiss army knife, and had other joints already cutoff. He told us as we came up, "I think there's a clog in here somewhere." I politely said that the symptoms described made it the leech field backing up. He looked at me puzzled, and said "Ya, that makes sense. I guess I'll put it back together now." We said we would take care of it, and left to get new pipe and fittings, since the others were all cut to crap. We get back, and he had duct taped the whole assembly together, then apparently told the boys it was good to use because there was fresh urine ALL over the floor. That was a fantastic day...
Another time I'm fixing a toilet in the dining hall. I label it with a sign saying out of order on the outside, lokc the door inside, and labeled it inside. I figured that'd be enough. So I grabbed the wrong flush lever (a front flush instead of a side flush), and went to get the correct one after taking the precautions above. I drive up to the shop and then back. When I go back into the bathroom, I hear someone in the stall I was working on. I wait till they come out. They see my staff shirt, and tell me, "hey, just so you know, there were two signs saying this toilets our of order, adn the stall was locked. Just so you guys know someone was screwing around with it." I replied, yes, I was fixing the toilet, the flusher is broken, and I put up signs and locked the door. He goes, "o, is that why it didn't flush?" Sure enough, when I walk in there, there's a giant crap in the toilet, and it smelled bad in there.
Another one, more a vandalism story than anything, occured in the boys showerhouse. I get this frantic radio call from the camp director, saying theres a toilet clogged. So I go up, not expecting anything serious. We hadn't really had any problems since the "uncloggable toilets" were installed. So I go it with my plunger, and look at it. What they hadn't told me was that someone had crapped over the clog, tried to flush, and the toilet overflowed, carrying the poo over the side. fantastic. So I start plunging, and I get nowhere. So I figure, I'll get the snake brought down. I radio one of my partners, and he comes down with the snake and heavier gloves. I could tell this was going to be a very long night (it was about 9 when I got the call). He comes down, adn we try the snake. Again, nothing. So we tell everyone its time to leave. Following the YPS standards, we leave while they get out of the showers (being 18+). They all come out, and we go back in. Sure enough, someone was stupid. Even though I told them why they needed to leave then, one kid still has to crap in the overflowing toilet. How can they be that dumb? I'm still baffled. So we go in and get to work harder with the plunger and snake. We eventually pull out a roll of toilet paper, 2 washcloths, and a small towel, along with two layers of poo and tp. Now this roll of tp wasn't tp ripped off and flushed. It was the roll itself, stripped down halfway, and flushed, cardboard and all. We were really happy about that. So then we go to bleach the floor, as it had poo all over it. We start that, and this kid, bout 15, comes in and asks, "can I take a shower?" This is as me and another guy are holding bottles of bleach, sprinkling it on the floor, and spraying it down. The other guy goes, "sure, you want some bleach to make sure you get all clean?" The kid replies, "will it clean me better than soap?" I just sighed and told the kid to go to the other shower house. That was a fun night to
On a daily basis I had adults telling me how to do my job. My favorite was when an adult told me that I was emptying the garbage wrong. He tried to tell me I needed to triple bag all of the trash, to make sure no litter got out. I just sighed, did what he said till he was out of sight, and then un triple bagged it.
It's amazing how many stupid people there are at a Scout camp.
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