Dad, You Were Right About The Lines

 

I have many fond childhood memories of not going in to fun places because my dad wouldn’t wait in a line. Ah, the places we didn’t go: movies, museums, restaurants, Aida at the Baths of Caracalla. To be fair, that last one had more to do with parking. I always thought he was a bit over the top when he acted as though tortured by the prospect of waiting in a line, but, come to find out, it might actually have been torture.   

A recent article in the New York Times’ Sunday Review, “Why Waiting Is Torture”, looked at several different aspects behind the psychology of queuing.  Some of the highlights were:

Being lied to makes us feel better about a line …

“… All else being equal, people who wait less than they anticipated leave happier than those who wait longer than expected. This is why Disney, the universally acknowledged master of applied queuing psychology, overestimates wait times for rides, so that its guests — never customers, always guests — are pleasantly surprised when they ascend Space Mountain ahead of schedule.”

Our sense of fairness about lines can be deadly …

“Perhaps the biggest influence on our feelings about lines, though, has to do with our perception of fairness. When it comes to lines, the universally acknowledged standard is first come first served: any deviation is, to most, a mark of iniquity and can lead to violent queue rage. Last month a man was stabbed at a Maryland post office by a fellow customer who mistakenly thought he’d cut in line. Professor Larson calls these unwelcome intrusions “slips” and “skips.””

Waiting has to be worth it …

“Fairness also dictates that the length of a line should be commensurate with the value of the product or service for which we’re waiting. The more valuable it is, the longer one is willing to wait for it. Hence the supermarket express line, a rare, socially sanctioned violation of first come first served, based on the assumption that no reasonable person thinks a child buying a candy bar should wait behind an old man stocking up on provisions for the Mayan apocalypse.”

Billions and billions of stressful hours are spent in lines …

“Americans spend roughly 37 billion hours each year waiting in line. The dominant cost of waiting is an emotional one: stress, boredom, that nagging sensation that one’s life is slipping away. The last thing we want to do with our dwindling leisure time is squander it in stasis.”

I think attitudes towards lines are also cultural. In Tokyo, a line was considered a good thing. It meant there was something so extraordinary that people were willing to wait insane amounts of time for it. Krispy Kreme donuts always had a two hour wait. I never waited two hours for a doughnut, because … well, it’s a doughnut. But I did wait two hours to vote in Florida in the 2004 general election, because of Florida in the 2000 general election.  

Ricochet readers, I’m curious, what is longest amount of time you’ve ever spent in line, and what was it for?

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  1. Profile Photo Member
    @ADPEfferson
    Rob Long: Okay, weirdly, I actually saw Aida at the Baths of Caracalla. I’d link, but I’m on my iPhone. Not much of a line, as I recall. Except for the bathroom. · 10 hours ago

    And it was awesome, wasn’t it?  (grumble…grumble…grumble…harrumph)

    • #31
  2. Profile Photo Member
    @

    @Wilber:  Santa Ana, CA but not at the DMV. Unfortunately and stressfully, my 2-hour wait occurred  at the airport (7/2012) because one of the two homeland security guards was absent.

    @Ms. Efferson: As a full-time Floridian, pls take my advice and vote absentee ballot!  I have my presidential ballot in hand as we speak.

    • #32
  3. Profile Photo Member
    @ADPEfferson
    Tony Martyr: 8 hours for tickets to Dire Straits in 1981 (and for, ultimately, pretty poor seats) – and, from the the first note of “Once upon a Time in the West“, absolutely worth it! · 4 hours ago

    I slept out for Who tickets, at what was then RFK stadium, which anyone familiar with D.C. knows was not the safest place in 1988.  Upon reflection, my parents might have done that differently if they’d had it to do over.  That was probably the longest.  But, I only have vague memories of the wait so I’m not sure it counts.   The concert was good.  U2’s Joshua Tree was better, and Pink Floyd was even better than U2.  They had lasers.

    • #33
  4. Profile Photo Inactive
    @SpudOChez

    For those who said waiting at an ER, I feel your pain but I don’t know if I’d call that waiting in line … more like a slow death.

    Something the yutes of today won’t understand is the waiting in line for concert tickets.  Nowadays you have to figure out how to beat the Ticketmaster system and have a high speed connection.  And you still get lousy expensive seats.

    I remember back in ’76 going to a Flipside very early one morning to wait in line (about 4 hour wait), and had the good fortune of their ticket machine printing out second row center for Black Sabbath.  I remember the pleasant words uttered to me by someone who was still in line after telling them what I scored:  “You (CofC not permitted).”

    • #34
  5. Profile Photo Contributor
    @RobLong

    Okay, weirdly, I actually saw Aida at the Baths of Caracalla. I’d link, but I’m on my iPhone. Not much of a line, as I recall. Except for the bathroom.

    • #35
  6. Profile Photo Reagan
    @GLDIII

    Star Wars Premier @ the Washington DC Uptown theater May of 1977…14 hours, weather was great, company made the wait worthwhile (now my wife). Repeated the experience with my boys (7 and 4) in May of 1999 (only 6 hours this time) with them dressed as Jedi. They were “the” hit during the impromptu audience staged “pre show”.

    • #36
  7. Profile Photo Inactive
    @DocJay

    Padres vs Cubs game 4.  We camped out all night at Jack Murphy stadium to get tickets in the morning.  I was with college buddies and made a party of it.  Steve Garvey hit a walk off home run in the ninth to tie the series and the place went nuts.  The Padres won the series 3-2 to advance to the world series.

    • #37
  8. Profile Photo Inactive
    @gnarlydad

    I’ve never been bored waiting in line. There is always something interesting to ponder, or someone fascinating to watch. My mom used to say “Boredom is not an option!” I did chores if I was bored, so I learned early to keep myself occupied.

    • #38
  9. Profile Photo Inactive
    @Foxfier
    Diane Ellis, Ed.: 2.5 hour wait to go through the security check point at the Las Vegas airport last year.  I missed my flight, and then proceeded to wait another 10 hours for the next plane with available seats. · 2 hours ago

    Oooh!  Good point– I forgot my daughter’s second Christmas, where we flew to see (great)Grandma…. waited 12 hours in the airport– 14 hours total, from the garage fee– for the plane to be canceled.  (We were flying two weeks early.)

    • #39
  10. Profile Photo Member
    @MollieHemingway

    Shortly after we were married, my husband camped out at the Kennedy Center for Sufjan Stevens tickets. All night long. Frigid. Great concert, though.

    As for me, my worst lines have been at the Social Security Administration and DMV. When I was trying to officially change my name shortly before the birth of my second child, I waited for *hours* while one person “worked.” There was no progress in the line and I was exhausted from trying to keep my 1-year-old quiet. Then I realized I didn’t need to keep her quiet. In fact, I encouraged her to cry. Not 10 minutes later, I was out of there. Apparently even government bureaucrats don’t like to hear children crying.

    And Ricochet member Sisyphus saw me almost have a nervous breakdown at the local DMV a few weeks ago. Three hour wait. Inexplicable three hour wait.

    • #40
  11. Profile Photo Coolidge
    @JoeFremeau

    Longest line I’ve waited in?  Chick-Fil-A a couple weeks ago was close.

    But probably the worst was for tickets to a U2 concert in college– and that because it violated pretty much every convention in your post. 

    1) They told us it would be fast.  It was not.

    2) There was no crowd control.  Somehow, the back of the line snaked around and ended up at the distribution window, so it was moving in two directions at once.  But those of us in the middle stood for hours without moving at all.

    3) And unbeknownst to us, this particular line was only to obtain the lottery ticket number that would determine who in the crowd would be first in the ticket-purchasing line later in the evening.  It must have been 5 hours, completely and utterly wasted.

    The concert was good, though.

    • #41
  12. Profile Photo Inactive
    @MorituriTe

    My very clever daughter once spent a few minutes punking the overnight line-waiters for some Apple product or another. She made a vaguely Apple-shaped hole with the fingers of both hands, and convinced them that that was the international hand gesture for Apple.  She had people up and down the line saluting each other with this non-existent secret gesture.

    This may say something about the credulity of anyone willing to line up overnight at the Palo Alto Apple Store in order to be first on their block to get something a million other people will receive a week later.

    • #42
  13. Profile Photo Member
    @
    Tim Gogolin: 8 hours in a mall waiting for the first iPhone. No special hand signals though, Daniel.

    True story: Steve Wozniak used to wait hours upon hours in line each and every time a new model was introduced.

    • #43
  14. Profile Photo Inactive
    @RedFeline
    Pseudodionysius: Canadian healthcare: 7 hours to get stitches. · 17 hours ago

    In Toronto, Canada, my son-in-law waited 15 minutes in Emergency, then took my grandson home and sewed him up himself. Son-in-law is a hunter and used to a little blood. Grandson took it “like a man”. :-) No scar!

    • #44
  15. Profile Photo Inactive
    @RedFeline

    I’m with Dad! 10 minutes max.! 

    In Toronto, Canada, my doctor calls me by name and has apologized to me for being two minutes late for our appointment. My Canadian friends are amazed as their doctors normally think only the doctor’s time is valuable. That is why I call him “Wonderful George”, and my friends do too. :-) 

    • #45
  16. Profile Photo Member
    @DianeEllis
    Red Feline:

    In Toronto, Canada, my doctor calls me by name and has apologized to me for being two minutes late for our appointment. My Canadian friends are amazed as their doctors normally think only the doctor’s time is valuable. That is why I call him “Wonderful George”, and my friends do too. :-)  · 22 hours ago

    I have a doctor who doesn’t accept insurance and requires a fee-for-service, which works for me with my high-deductible insurance and HSA.  He’s never late (well, once he was 10 minutes late because Obama clogged up traffic in SF, but he got out of his cab and sprinted a mile to the office and apologized profusely for his tardiness).  He gave me a wedding present (a rehydrating electrolyte formula  that he developed himself to take with me to the jungle), and e-mails me articles he thinks I’d like.

    Not as remarkable as your wonderful George (since you’re in Canada, after all), but even here in the U.S. it’s hard to find doctors who don’t treat patients like cattle.

    • #46
  17. Profile Photo Inactive
    @Sheila

    Our Washington county GOP caucus meetings earlier this year had very, very long & unexpected lines for several hours.  Long, winding line of delegates, alternates & observers was a first time for me. Must admit, tho’ my legs tired, the exposure to the process was educational and encouraging. I was pleased to see so many, many people actually willing to participate!

    • #47
  18. Profile Photo Inactive
    @edwarddentzelcom

    February 2, 1997. Punxsutawney, PA. Trying to get a bus to take me and my girlfriend back to our car after seeing Phil pop out and see or not see his shadow.  It was a Sunday so more people were there than usual. I was there the next year (on a Monday) and only about half the number of people were there.

    Anywho, that day in 1997, there was technically no line and the town underestimated how many people would show up. So, you had a group-I’d say at least 1000 people–trying to get on 3 school buses that showed up every half hour. It was raining, the ditch we stood in to wait for the buses turned to ankle deep mud, and the alcohol had been flowing (but I don’t drink). I didn’t time it but the sun behind thick clouds was just coming up when the festivities ended. And, we didn’t get on a bus until the sun was high in the sky. I’d say 3 hours.

    Oh, and by the way, to get on my bus, I climbed through one of its windows . . . or I still might be standing there. 

    • #48
  19. Profile Photo Inactive
    @DonMackison

    Some years ago, I alighted from the train at Loughborough U.K, enroute to the college. While standing alone on the platform waiting for a taxi, a greyed haired damsel stopped by me and enquired “Excuse me, but it this the queue?”.

    • #49
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