OK, time for my judging story...
This was 25 years ago... I had been a judge at a couple different car shows. Nothing big, just helped out, but I always tried very hard to do my job correctly and never had a complaint.
A guy I knew was having a show at a local restaurant and had done it for a couple years. Something got screwed up on his end and the guys that were supposed to judge were late. There was about 150 cars. I got asked to "help" and I would get a dinner out of the deal, so sure... Why not... I'd get things started and when the judges showed up, I would hand some of it off to them and help them finish up. There was only about 3 or 4 classes and a couple special trophies. About half way through, I realized I was going to be it... Nobody else showed... So I did my best and got it done the best I could.
Everything went fine.. I was working my tail off, but it went OK... One award was for a "spirit of the sixties" and the organizer told me "See the '59 Ford? Make sure he wins that". The car wasn't very nice, and I said "Huh?" and he explained that the owner was very sick with not a lot of time left to live and it was his (the owner) teenage kids that had finished the car. Of course I said "You got it!"
The guys and his kids were smiling ear to ear... and I could see him holding back his tears as he got his trophy. I felt really good about it.. Everybody clapped etc.
So.... All was good... I was picking up and headed in for my dinner when I got stopped by a guy that had taken a second place. He had a nice car, but there were nicer... and he didn't like how he didn't get first in his class. He was really ticked about the '59 Ford getting a "spirit of the 60's" award. He was OK at first and but didn't want to hear a word I had to say... So then he got loud... So I just started to walk away.. He started in again and I kept walking... He got even louder and started hurling personal insults... I still kept walking.. He was following me at that point. More insults... So I finally stopped and started to turn around.. I'd had enough. Then I heard his wife yell "Red! God damn it! That big guy is gonna kick your ***!" He stopped coming towards me and turned around and walked back to his car while I watched.. His wife said to me "He's such a dumb ***, I'm sorry".
