I frequently golf in Columbia, IL across the Mississippi River from my home in Chesterfield, MO. The courses are a little cheaper over there, and a little easier to get on. Also, over there is a driving range that is the bargain of the century. They charge $5 and you can hit all the balls you want. Just to give you a little perspective, most places charge between $10 to $12 for a bucket of 90 balls. If you are at a golf course and want to warm up before your round, they will charge you $4 to $6 for a bucket of 30 or so balls.
As you can imagine this is not the nicest place in the world, but it is sufficient for banging golf balls. It is just on the other side of the Mississippi River levee and as such is very flat and sometimes very muddy. It is what we call crawdad land down South. It is also a little hard to get to, as you have to drive pass farm fields to get there and make several turns. They have hitting mats and a couple areas where you can hit off of grass. They also have a putting green and a pitching green, all for the price of admission. Again most places will charge extra for the use of each of those. A kicker is that there is frequently not an attendant on duty and it is the honor system. You drop your $5 in a box and get your own balls from the tub that sits below the machine that washes the balls.
At this same location is a putt putt course, but they are separate business. Don’t ask, I don’t know. The last few months they have been using the building for children parties. Again, not part of the driving range business. During the summer and on weekends, there is an attendant on duty for the putt putt course (otherwise it too is on the honor system). When the attendant is there he will take the money for the driving range, or you could just drop the money in the self-pay box as normal. It is nice to have the attendant so you do not have worry about having the correct amount. Plus this means the building is open and the bathroom is available. I have watered several of the bushes there at other times.
I was out there the other day. As I drove up I noticed a couple and two very small kids on the putt putt course. From their looks I would guess them to be working class. But you never know. I learned that from selling furniture in Oklahoma City. Farmers would come in looking less than spectacular and pay cash. Well dressed folks would come in and instantly wanted to talk about credit.
Anyway, 4 souls on the putt putt course, they had just spent $20. As I was giving the attendant my 5 dollar bill when the father came in. Now the deal is that every person hitting golf balls pays $5. He politely asked if he could just pay for one unlimited bucket and let both his boys both hit from it. The oldest of the boys might have been in kindergarten, but I am not sure of that. They were not going to sit there very long hitting golf balls. The young attendant explained that the putt putt and driving ranges were not connected and it was not really his call, but he did not really see a problem with it. The gentleman paid his $5.
I had hit enough golf balls that I had worked up a small worn spot on one finger. I had headed back towards the ball trough to get some more balls to go to the pitching green. About this time a mixed group of teenagers arrived, 7 or 8 of them, boys and girls. Again from the clothes, I am guessing the group to be from middle to upper middle class families. They all were very nicely dressed, in very new and fashionable clothes. One young man started to put his $5 in the self-pay box, when another told him, “You do not have to do that, no one is watching.” This time it was me doing the old classic cartoon double take. They way I was raised, that is stealing. Apparently, it is not stealing if no one is watching. You only have to take responsibility for your actions if someone is watching or you might get caught. As far as I could tell, none of the teenagers paid!
What juxtaposition on these two groups of folks. The group that looked like they could afford it, basically stole services from the business. The group that looked like money was an issue (for most folks with small kids money is an issue), wanted to make sure they were not cheating the business.
I just hope this group of teenagers is not representative of the larger group of this generation.