News

People from all walks of life found among fair workers

Posted by CarnivalMidways.Com on July 27, 2009
Posted in: News. Tagged: .

By BRENT ENGEL – Hannibal Courier-Post

Bowling Green, MO —They’re called carnies. But in a sense, theirs are the faces that make up a portrait of America. Black, white and brown. Married, divorced and single. Old, middle-aged and young.
The skilled veterans and the inexperienced apprentices. Few other settings offer such a range of diversity as the melting pot that is a carnival. From a wide range of backgrounds come a few people who spend months living and working side-by-side in all types of weather from coast to coast. The only common thread is to put on the best, safest show possible.

Zeke Shilling calls nearby Ottumwa, Iowa, home, but he’s been on the fair circuit most of his life.
“It’s kind of like one big family,” Shilling said. “Everybody has a job and everybody has to do their job for it to all work.”

Safety first – The work began early Monday for Shilling and other workers for Kenny’s Funland.
The Texas-based carnival is providing 16 rides, 16 games of chance and several food boths for the Pike County Fair from Tuesday to Saturday outside Bowling Green. Though he’s never been in the military, Shilling barks orders like a drill sergeant. Rides are put together one at a time.
“That way, we know it’s done right,” Shilling said as he tightened a bolt on the kiddie motorcycles.
Everything is checked and re-checked. “Only a fool is positive,” Shilling tells a co-worker who questions whether too much attention has been paid to a task. State inspections are done and attractions also are given a thorough check at least once a day using manuals specific to each machine. Rides include The Hurricane, Tornado, Ring of Fire, The Zipper and a merry-go-round. “This carnival is safety first,” Shilling said. “We’re out here to make people happy, not hurt anyone.” Attentiveness and responsibility also are stressed. Workers who treat customers poorly can be issued their walking papers.
“You have to have a good work ethic,” Shilling said. Cleanliness is difficult at any fairgrounds, especially when the temperatures climb or the rain falls. The folks from Kenny’s Funland do all they can to be presentable and keep the rides looking good. “You still have to have hygiene,” said Shilling, who later yelled “Pull your pants up” at a co-worker whose outfit had slipped just far enough to reveal briefs. “You can’t have dirty, nasty people running greasy rides.”

Smiles as paychecks
Quick, name a place other than a carnival where just about everybody wears a smile. Carnies agree that one of the best things about their jobs, other than a steady paycheck, is that look of delight. After all, there aren’t too many frowning faces at a county fair. Greg Rodriguez has spent half of his 40 years operating rides, and doesn’t get tired of it. “I like to see the kids smile,” he said. “When the kids see one of these rides, their eyes light up. They think that’s the coolest stuff in the world.” Rodriguez has four children, who stay with his wife in Texas while he’s on the road for eight to 10 months of the year. “They miss their dad, but my boys know what I do,” Rodriguez said. “My daughter, too. They understand.” Both Rodriguez and Shilling have family ties to fairs. Rodriguez’s uncle was a carnie and Shilling’s father owned a show.
Shilling also has four kids. Unlike during his childhood, however, they stay at home with a grandmother while he and his wife are on the fair circuit. “They’re in one place, so they’re used to the same routine,” Shilling said of the children. Jeremy Henderson has been with Kenny’s Funland for only three weeks. He joined up when the troupe rolled through West Plains. “It ain’t bad,” he said with a smile. “It’s long hours.”

‘Out here is home’
The long hours can be rough. When they’re not working, most carnies retreat to their mobile homes.
Kenny’s Funland provides quarters for workers who don’t have a camper shell over their heads. There are few precious moments for a tour of local attractions or personal down time. Tawnya Mackay and Kristen Brooks spent Monday morning getting a funnel cake booth ready. “Your house is on the road,” said Mackay, who’s from Salt Lake City and has been on the road for three months. “You don’t have the luxury of going where you want when you want. It’s not the life for everybody.” Like Henderson, Brooks joined the carnival in West Plains. “It sounded like something to do,” she said. “This way, I can make money, work and get out of West Plains.” Brooks is 18 and Mackay is 23, while Shilling and Rodriguez are in their 40s.
Henderson, who runs the merry-go-round, is 19. Though he isn’t sure if he’ll make a career out of being a carnie, Henderson has found at least one thing about the road that invigorates him. “I get to go places and see new people,” he said. Rodriguez and Shilling agree. “This is entertainment,” Rodriguez said. “It’s never a dull moment.” “You meet new people, you meet interesting people and you meet —holes,” Shilling said. “It’s just like anywhere else. There are good and bad people everywhere.”
The clanking and lifting continued as Shilling barked out more orders.
By Tuesday evening, the front porch will be ready and the welcome mat will be rolled out.
“Out here is home,” Shilling said. “It’s been home all my life. I enjoy doing this.”

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Set Up Begins For Montana State Fair

Posted by CarnivalMidways.Com on July 21, 2009
Posted in: News. Tagged: , .

By KFBB News Team

With the Montana State Fair just a few days away, set up is underway at Expo Park to make sure everything is ready to go on Friday.

Tuesday was the first day of carnival set up at the fairgrounds.
More than 60 workers from Thomas Carnival spent Tuesday afternoon setting up rides that will open to the public on Friday night.

There will be 40 rides in total, including the Supershot, which was brand new last year and a big hit among kids and adults.
There will also be a separate shaded area that has fifteen rides and games for the little ones.

Organizers say there is a ride for everyone, including a new one this year that comes from across the world. John Hanschen of Thomas Carnival says, “We got a brand new one that was just brought in from Italy. It’s called the barn yard and it’s an actual barn looking type building that goes around and around and spins and the kids scream and it’s a family ride. The families and kids ride together and it’s a lot of fun.”

The Thomas Carnival started back in 1928 in North Dakota. The workers travel ten months out of the year, setting up carnivals across the United States. Their next stop is Utah.

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A Family Amusement

Posted by CarnivalMidways.Com on July 18, 2009
Posted in: News. Tagged: .

By MARC SHAPIRO – Maryland Gazette

Shaw and Sons still a carnival favorite after 64 years

In the 1940s, Leroy Shaw wanted his son to have a good backyard toy he could share with the neighbors.

Armed with the skills of a motorcycle mechanic and sheet metal worker, he built a small train that could hold 24 kids.

More than 60 years later, Shaw and Sons Amusements still has the train, a humble reminder of the ride that sparked a family business. In its 64th year and third generation, the company has about 25 rides and 30 games.

“My son and daughter have been in it since high school and my nephew, and now my grandsons are coming along,” said Ralph Shaw, Leroy’s son and president of the Severn company, who will be 71 next month. “I still enjoy going to work every day and being around my family.”

Ralph’s son and daughter, Roy and Terrie, and his nephew, Bob, run the show these days. During the carnival season, at its peak right now, Shaw and Sons does 30 to 35 carnivals, sometimes with two or three happening at one time. Along with Jolly Rides in Annapolis, it’s one of two family-run amusement ride businesses in the county.

“We all have a good working relationship with one another,” said Roy, president of the Maryland State Showmen’s Association.

“Nobody steps on anybody’s toes. We all look out for one another.”

Roy, Terrie and Bob, who range from 42 to 52 years old, have worked in the business all their lives. Each went to college for business administration. While they share business responsibilities, Roy works with transportation and concessions, Terrie helps manage the office and heads up maintenance and parts and Bob directs nighttime operations at the carnivals.

“I’ve been out here since I was a kid,” Bob said. “When I was in high school, most of my friends worked here.”

At the age of 8, he was blowing up balloons and picking up ping pong balls at a goldfish game. Terrie was cleaning fish bowls and bagging goldfish at 10, while Roy got his start setting up the slide at 12.

“We were born into it,” Roy said. “We grew up out here.”

The company’s season starts in March and goes until Thanksgiving. About 40 employees drive the same number of tractor trailers, and sometimes the company hires up to 20 independent truck drivers for bigger shows.

Its schedule includes the Brooklyn Park Recreation Council, the Lakeshore Volunteer Fire Department, Annapolis Knight of Columbus, Woodland Beach Volunteer Fire and the Kent Island Volunteer Fire Department.

A carnival can be broken down and set up within 24 hours. The average show can be broken down in about four to five hours and each ride is trailer-mounted, making transport an easy task.

In the earlier days, when each piece would have to be taken apart and packed up on a trailer, breakdowns could last 15 hours. These days, trailer-mounted rides basically pack up into themselves.

“We used to take eight rides, and we can do 35 in the same amount of time because of trailer mounts,” Ralph said.

In the company’s off season, it shrinks to 10 employees. But it’s hardly quiet. They’re at their shop everyday doing repairs, replacing parts and are often out at safety seminars and conventions.

“(We’re) just trying to stay on top of things in the industry,” Roy said. “Everybody thinks it’s all fun and games, but the carnival business is an actual business.”

Roy said the numbers are right on par with any other year, although games are suffering a bit. Because people don’t want to travel too far for entertainment, carnivals still thrive.

Over the years, Shaw and Sons has earned itself a reputation as an honest, safe company.

Richard Snader, a member of the Arbutus Volunteer Fire Department, has worked with Shaw and Sons since he’s been with the department, about 36 years. He said his fire company has been working the Shaws since it’s had a carnival, long before his time.

“That is a family business that makes a very significant effort when they’re working with a client to make sure that their rides are operated in a safe and professional manner,” he said. “They are not willing to accept anything less out of the people that work for them and work around them.”

Mike Jones, who serves on the Maryland amusement ride safety advisory board with Ralph, said Shaw and Sons is known for a safe operation and switching it up with new rides quite often.

“He’s very well appreciated throughout the industry; throughout the country,” Jones said. “They run a good, clean operation.”

The board, where Ralph has been a member since its inception, has been a model for other states in amusement ride safety.

“We were one of the first states that instituted that kind of program and a lot of other states have followed suit,” he said. “But we were the first and we’re still the best.”

The board instituted policies like requiring a state inspector to check rides every time they are set up or moved, which Ralph says cut down the accident rate significantly.

“It got rid of a lot of what I call fly-by-night operators,” he said. “They’d flop their junk down and stuff was falling apart. We don’t have that anymore.”

In Ralph’s capacity as a board member, he helped fire departments that could barely afford to operate the one or two rides they owned when insurance regulations increased costs. Ralph temporarily bought the rides and took on the costs until they went down, something Snader is still in awe of.

“He picked up all the insurance on that equipment until they were able to get the legislation corrected,” Snader said. “That’s the kind of family the Shaws is.”

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Fun on the midway at the Kane County Fair

Posted by CarnivalMidways.Com on July 17, 2009
Posted in: News. Tagged: , .

By JANELLE WALKER For The Courier-News

ST. CHARLES — Jeff Lapin has been in the carnival business for 40 years, and although he’s also had other types of jobs, he is one of those who finds life on the road too alluring to give up.

Lapin, 50, is one of the vendors working with Fantasy Amusement, the midway company for the Kane County Fair. The fair kicked off Wednesday and runs through Sunday night.

Some might call Lapin a carny. That’s a term he’s had thrown at him, sometimes cruelly, by people on the midway. But he’s a businessman first and owns a few of the games, including the basketball shoot and a concession stand.

He discovered his love for the business at age 10, when a carnival set up across the street from his boyhood home. “My mother took me over. I helped with the church first. I sat in the dunk tank as a volunteer for no pay, other than the privilege of getting wet.”

From there, he worked for a few different carnival companies, then went on the road during the season. He worked as a carpet layer and painter, too — but those never compared to life in the carnival, he said.

Carnival life also has a four- or five-month off-season, which he spends amid a wildlife-filled area in Arkansas.

The economy is having the same effect on his business as any other, he added. His cost for merchandise has gone up, as have his costs for fuel, insurance, labor and utilities. And often, games are the last place where families spend their money at the fair.

“Rides are first, and everyone has got to eat or even get a bottle of water,” Lapin said. “Overall, families don’t have the extra money to spend.”

‘Trick’ to the game

He know there is a perception that carnival games are rigged. But the sign on his basketball game is clear — the rims are not regulation. The rims are more oval-shaped: 18 inches by 11½ inches. The basketballs are 9 inches in diameter; and the shooting line is at 19 feet — the same as a college-level three-point line.

The “trick” to making the basket is to drop the ball down straight into the basket. Underhand throws are great for that, he said.

Nick Das, 13, was working the game Thursday afternoon. He was “born into” the carnival business, because his mom works one of the concession stands. He’s been working carnivals during the summer since he was about 9 years old, Das said.

Das says he doesn’t see it as a long-term career — he wants to be a firefighter like his dad, who passed away from cancer five years ago.

For Quentin Rieves, 23, and Darryl Townsend, 22, both of Chicago, working the carnivals is a great way to work outdoors all summer long. During the off season, Rieves works security for a downtown Chicago hotel, and Townsend is going to Robert Morris University for computers.

“I like to be outside and interacting with people and kids,” Rieves said.

“I love being outside, not confined in a building all day long,” Townsend added. “I get to enjoy the weather of the summer.”

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Carnival time!

Posted by CarnivalMidways.Com on July 15, 2009
Posted in: News. Tagged: .

BY MARY LANCASTER INDEPENDENT WRITER

As a family with young children got their bearings by the fried dough booth, their wide-eyed little girl spun around to take in the colorful, flashing lights and listen to the enticing promises of the game barkers. Jumping up and down, she excitedly announced “I’m gonna get cra-a-azy!”

That mission to have fun is what a carnival is all about. Last Wednesday the L & M Amusements carnival run by the Cushings of Wilmington opened on Nantucket to enthusiastic crowds reveling in the troupe’s famous Italian sausage, the thrill of games with stuffed animal prizes and the lure of wild rides. The carnival runs through Saturday, July 18 on the Tom Nevers field from 6 to 10 p.m. each night.

Larry and Marion Cushing began bringing their carnival to the island in the early 1970s when it was set up next to Stop and Shop before The Seagrille and gas station properties were developed. One year the event was held on the Nantucket Boys & Girls Club land, another year it was on Nobadeer Farm Road where they had to run water from the nearest house 1,500 feet away, and for the last several years the carnival has been at Tom Nevers.

The carnival originated with Marion Cushing’s grandfather. She is now a sprightly 72, still the carnival’s owner and a regular traveler with the company’s 20 employees as they move weekly from April through October to 26 towns in New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts and the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.

“It’s always been my life,” said Marion Cushing, stopping by the office trailer to speak with her son Larry Cushing III, and Mike Joyce, a former Nantucketer. Joyce is now the carnival’s bookkeeper and the handiest man possible for the family business. He is a substitute teacher at a vocational school in the off-season.

“I like being my own boss,” Mrs. Cushing continued. “I like being around the people and I have a lot of friends over the years in the places I’ve been. It’s nice seeing them again. I had one of the islanders call me to see if we were coming this year. She was so happy I returned the call, and she let the kids hear the answering machine. They were so happy we were coming.”

Getting the sizable carnival equipment to Nantucket is no simple nor cheap feat, which is why for the last couple of years there has been no merry-goround or Ferris wheel, explained Larry Cushing, adding that it would cost about $20,000 to get all the rides and games here on the slow boat.

The family also has to make judgment calls on whether rides or games are practical to bring to Nantucket. On the last occasions the merry-go-round was transported, it only had enough riders to run three or four times the entire evening. This year, there are 10 games and 10 rides with each a mix of entertainment suitable for kids and adults. The carnival stays on Nantucket longer than in other towns because of the effort to travel here.

Larry, now 50, was 15 when he was recruited into the family operation and has a son and daughter running the fried dough concession representing fifth generation carnival Cushings. For many people, the carny life just gets into their system and stays there.

“It is crazy. I was pretty much born and raised with it and so was my mother. It’s a different place and different people every week. We have our own little moving community. It’s a lot of challenge, too,” said Larry, an oil burner technician in the winter. He noted that the lousy June weather has hurt business more this year than the lagging economy.

“If you ask the old-timers, some of the best days [for carnivals] were in the Depression days,” said Larry. “People save up for it and it may be one of the few things they do.”

It was evident by the crowd swarming the carnival last Thursday, only minutes after it opened, that spending a couple hours just having fun is very important for people’s happiness, even if they are watching their wallets more closely than in years past. There was no shortage of children pulling at sticky wads of spun cotton candy, others munching from festive red and white boxes of golden popcorn or folks devouring juicy grilled hot dogs stuffed into buns with mustard and pickle relish with obvious pleasure.

Kids were lining up at the Wac N Smash game where little creatures pop out of holes. The idea is to slam as many of them as possible with a rubber mallet to win fuzzy dinosaurs, alligators, bears and other stuffed toys. Meanwhile, people were piling into the Round Up that holds riders in open cages by centrifugal force as the main platform tilts on its side while spinning. Smaller folk were choosing to ride the little train, cars or trucks.

In the midst of all this is the popular fried dough stand where Lauren Cushing, 22, makes and fries the dough and her brother Tom, 16, smears the circles with generous amounts of sweetened spiced apples, melted chocolate or pizza sauce. Lauren is attending Arizona State College where she is studying family and human development. Tom is going into his junior year in high school and thinking about becoming a lawyer. Both kids work at the carnival during summers, but may not carry the family torch.

“It’s always been a part of our lives, but not our dream,” Lauren said of her and Tom, suggesting that maybe their two brothers will be the ones to take over the tradition.

A little farther from that booth, Dennis King is running the Tubs game (harder than it looks) where the goal is to land a softball sized rubber ball inside a tilted plastic basket. King has been with the Cushings for about a year after being laid off from his regular job as a fiberglass painter at Bombadier Corporation in Plattsburg, N.Y.

“I am a talker and I love traveling and meeting people,” he said of his satisfaction working for the carnival.

Next door is Kimberly Young, 28, who runs the balloon dart game. It was a bit tricky to nail targets that windy evening, but maybe the several lucky prize winners had Mother Nature moving their balloons to the right spot as an unexpected bonus.

Young, who teaches Pre-K students in Wilmington when not with the Cushings, said her grandparents owned a carnival and so she has been involved with the life since she was tiny. She met her husband, a plumber in the off-season, at one of the Cushing events. Now, she has logged seven years with the family and he has worked for them for 15 years. They love their carny jobs, she said, and lamented the fact that carnivals such as the Cushings’ do not receive enough appreciation about their support of scholarship funds and charities.

“We get to come to Nantucket for two weeks every year and the Vineyard for a week. You make so many friends, and every year people are looking for you. It’s never boring,” said Young, handing out small blue whales to happy little winners and blowing up more balloons to replace the ones that were popped.

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