Eric

A person who saw this essay wrote: "Carnies have a bad reputaion, known as scummy people. Yet there they are...smiling, posing, attitudes. One has to wonder.... they were once children... how did they grow up to be carnies... what misfortunes brought them to this.Do they even consider that life to be a misfortune? Known for drugs and drinking yet there they are... putting the equipment together that our children and grandchildren will ride on... Kinda scary...we don't stop to look at them at the fair... in photographs we can see them and take the time to think."

Almost to a person they come from some unpleasant of background. Even the South Africans who have to have clean criminal records to get VISAs. It's almost proverbial, if you are free to literally 'run away with the carnival' you've pretty much shot your load. And I don't think it's so much that they are away from home because people often have jobs that require travel, but this is HARD WORK and LONG DAYS and none of them ever mentioned doing it for the money.

I think that is what makes them bond TOGETHER so strongly. These people are more than coworkers.

And they drink but I never saw them drunk. Delivering pizzas to college campuses? Now THAT was when I saw drunks. I trust their judgement. I'd also trust my neices and nephews on rides. Also, recently in the news have been stories of trials and arrests concerning priests and teachers and the abuse of children. But I hadn't heard any stories of Carnies getting busted. Heh heh

As far as the equipment goes, they take great pride in these rides and the condition they are in. It's a reflection on the crew if a ride isn't maintained. At one point during the fair they shut down a ride, I forget which one now, but I had also gotten to know fair management and there was no undue pressure to get it running again, or certainly not running it unsafely.

Everyone also points out that these rides are inspected everytime they are put up, roughly every 10 days of so as opposed to standing amusement parks which they said have much less frequent inspection schedules.