It would be well worth your 50 cents to meet Kim.

Get in your car.

Drive to the Memorial Union.

Pass under the parking ramp gate.

Test your steering wheel’s maneuverability as you make your way to the ramp’s highest level.

Once conquering the climb to the fourth floor, soak in the view of Ames in all its glory. Then make the curvy descent to exit the ramp, and at the finish line you will meet Kim.

“Thanks, Kim,” is what many drivers say as they pay their fee to Kim Hasstedt, full-time supervising cashier at the Memorial Union parking ramp.

People occasionally forget to thank her. They may also forget to stop and pay the hourly 50 cent fee.

“It’s not too funny if they get caught,” she said.

A drive-by will cost the stunt person a minimum charge of $50, so only a few people try it a month, she said.

Paul Hardersen, a part-time ramp employee and senior in geology and political science, recalled a time when a student forgot to pay.

“I was, like, ‘hey!’ and she drove back and paid. What do you think, we’re here for the heck of it?” he said.

“Sometimes if we’re not sitting in our seat, people will think they don’t have to pay — we’re not glued to our seat,” Kim said.

Kim and Paul are working the “front booth” on a typically freezing day.

Kim has sat in the little cubical from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. five days a week for 15 years — and she’s seen it all.

Several years ago a university golf cart was pushed off the top level. Ramp workers have also found couches and furniture left in parking spaces, Roger Ferris, operations manager, said.

“At the end of the semester some people clean out their place and leave stuff on the parking ramp,” he said. “We routinely find things that have been thrown off the ramp into the creek.”

Ferris said people also change their vehicle’s oil and leave the mess on the ramp’s floor.

Kim said she has also received vandalized tickets when people pay their parking fees.

“Our tickets are occasionally used as lipstick blotters. This one girl gave me a ticket with her fingernail attached to the back,” she said.

But, in general, Kim said the people who frequent the ramp are “pretty decent.” She said sometimes people give her cake, cupcakes or even a box of chocolates.

“I like my regular people. I don’t know them all by name, but I have nicknames for some of them, like ‘Harley Guy’ and ‘Subway Man,'” she said. “Everywhere I go I see people I know. My mom will say ‘Who is that?’ and I’ll say, ‘I don’t know but I know them from the ramp.'”

Over the years, Kim has noticed changes in the student population at ISU.

“People are dressing a lot more sensibly in the cold weather these days … it’s amazing how many people have really nice cars,” she added.

Kim has a cheerful disposition even though there is the occasional grumpy driver.

“Sometimes a person gripes about how long they had to wait in line, but at the same time they’re hunting for their ticket and getting their money from the backseat,” she said.

These situations don’t keep Kim from enjoying her low-stress job.

“I’m a single mom with three kids. I get weekends off and the job is pretty unstressful so I generally don’t go home in a bundle of knots. The job is pretty flexible so I can stay home with my kids if they’re sick,” she said.

Kim doesn’t have a problem keeping herself entertained either. The ticket booth is equipped with a TV, refrigerator, microwave and bathroom.

“From outside it looks like I’m in a little box, but it’s a lot bigger than that,” she said. “A lot of people wonder what I do the whole time. On cold days they ask me if I’m warm enough … the left side of my body gets cold in the winter.”

So she keeps the window closed as much as possible. However, it doesn’t keep the car exhaust from entering the booth.

“The exhaust is really bad in the mornings,” Paul said.

“We just got this system two years ago that pressurizes the air and blows exhaust out and brings fresh air in,” Kim said. “Basically for the first 13 years I worked here my air in here was what the air outside was — which was full of exhaust — so I usually went home with headaches.

“You get used to the exhaust fumes after a while,” she said.

Ferris said the parking ramp staff “puts up with a lot of stuff.”

“Sometimes the drivers take out their frustrations they’ve had in the day on the attendants,” he said. “Sometimes it’s a wonder the workers can smile as they bid the drivers good day.”