My big boss, Chuck, decides it would be a good promotional experience to rent a t-shirt cannon and shoot off Res Life t-shirts during a hockey game. So he and Matt Colaprete hop online and find a place. About a week later, Matt comes strolling into my office saying, "You gotta see this". I walk out into our main office to see Chuck and him standing over a huge suitcase with smiles as if it contained the Stanley Cup. So Chuck goes to open it and right on top are the directions, which get tossed aside, only then to pull out, the "Bleacher Reacher". No lie, it had a huge decal right on the side that said "Bleacher Reacher". After realizing that the air tank needed to be filled with air, anticipation spread as Matt went to go get it filled. We then proceeded outside, hooked the canister up, put a shirt in fired, and PHOMPT...
it went about 5 feet
Dramatic silent pause as we look to each other thinking, "This thing sucks". After turning a few dials we try again. PHOMPT! The shirt goes maybe 7 feet. Feeling a little defeated (but laughing pretty darn hard) we blame it on the wind, head back inside, mull over the newly opened directions, and realize that we weren't doing anything wrong. The gun gets packed up and we call it a day.
Chuck wanted to break it out at two games. The first would be he and Matt, the second night would be me and Matt. First game, Chuck's got the gun, walks out onto the ice, and puts a t-shirt clear into the ceiling of the ice arena. I get this story the next night and I'm thinking it's going to have a hell of a kick. Me and Matt chat about who's going to use the gun and he allowed me to take a crack at it. Here's a picture of me in action thanks to Bruce Bufford and Mike Greenberg:
We only had a few minutes out there. Bruce, Kyle Schradel, and Matt went off to throw a few shirts into the crowd. I got off about 6 or 7 and they flew out of that thing. But then, in front of, oh, 2000 people, this happens
Ok so yes, that guy on the far right is doing a "safe" sign. Bruce is the guy in the blue polo. Kyle is next to him helping, yep, me, up off my butt. What this picture doesn't show is a few things:
- Bruce and I feel completely in sync according to people.
- All that was going through my head as I'm falling is "Don't break the gun". Not "Protect Yourself", just "Protect the gun".
All in all, it's one of those experiences I'll never forget.
-Jeff
