Letter: Why have Lights if you don’t want visitors

Letter: Why have Lights if you don’t want visitors

Kelly Jo Boyce
Sanford, FL

Dear Editor:

My family and I traveled 1-1/2 hours to your beautiful city this past weekend to see the Nights of Lights and celebrate in the festivities. We love to visit St Augustine and this was our first time visiting during Christmas.

Everything was just beautiful, the lights, the shops and the atmosphere. However, there is one thing that happened, and thank goodness it was at the very end of our evening; but, I think you should be aware of it.

On the way home, we stopped at the local Dairy Queen on San Marco Avenue — and our experience does not support what St Augustine seems to be trying to do for the city.

We were subjected to an employee there who repeatedly walked through the dining area yelling at everybody about how she was “sick of these stupid people coming to look at the lights”. Why have Lights if you don’t want visitors?

“They only pay me $7 an hour to put up with this crap,” she ranted. She glared at all of us and said, “We are closing in 15 minutes and you need to leave.” The Dairy Queen employee continued to storm through the store, ranting and raving about how annoyed she was.

The place was full of children and people from out of town. A family from Georgia and I couldn’t believe what was happening. It was so bad we thought it was a joke. It was obvious to us that this place of business does not support out-of-town guests and does not welcome them to your city.

I was amazed that all of this was happening in front of the manager. Another customer complained about her behavior and the manager did nothing. Instead, a fellow employee tried to get her to stop. She said, “I’m not scared of these people”.

It is my hope that this was one employee’s bad attitude; but, if it is the establishment’s attitude, as a whole, then maybe they should close their doors on events like these.

They really reflect badly on your beautiful city.