These aren't the fancy, self-opening electronic gates that more modern office buildings use these days. They are metal, mechanical devices like the ones that you might see at the entrance to an amusement park ride. I have experienced the pain of hitting that steel rod when the scanner fails to read the card properly. It's unpleasant, to say the least.
During normal business hours, you present ID to get into the building, but the turnstiles are unlocked for exiting. You just walk right through. At night and one weekends, however, they change the rules. You have to scan your card to get in OR out. - I don't know why they've set it up this way. It makes no sense to me.
Anyway, I finished my Saturday work at about 3 in the afternoon. As I rode down in the elevator, I pulled my ID card out of my wallet so I'd be ready to pass through the turnstiles.
Another gentleman rode down in the elevator with me. I guess this guy didn't come in on weekends very often, because he seemed to be unaware that the turnstiles would be locked. Unfortunately for him, he seemed to be in a bit of a hurry. As he dashed toward the entrance, he hit the metal bar of the turnstile so hard that his sunglasses flew off of his head and onto the floor. I can't imagine how painful that must have been. It must have felt like getting hit in the thighs with a baseball bat.
"You have to use your ID card," the security guard explained blankly. Too bad she didn't think to share this advice when it might have prevented a painful crash.
I passed gently through the next turnstile, picked the guy's glasses up from the floor and handed them to him as he stepped gingerly through the gate. "I'm having a bad day," he said as his grimacing face betrayed his physical discomfort.
Copyright © 2017 Daniel R. South
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