By RYAN S. CLARK – Beaumont Enterprise
November, 5, 2008
Veteran carnival employee, Lyle Rush works on removing a truck axle during a routine maintenance day at Wagners Carnival. Rush has worked over 10-years with Wagners keeping the mechanics of the operation running smooth. Valentino Mauricio/The Enterprise
Doing this job means sleeping in the same bed but not necessarily in the same city.
It means having to please screaming children and some of their short-tempered parents.
Furthermore, working at a carnival means there’s a good chance you will end up cleaning vomit off multiple rides.
“Yeah, I had 10 pukers in one day,” said Zach Brown, who works for Wagner’s Carnival, an operation that has been set up in the Central Mall parking lot in Port Arthur since last week.
“It was everywhere. There were chunks of hot dog and other stuff. I had to end up get a big bucket of water to clean everything up.”
And even with that not-so-pleasant experience, Brown, 18, said Monday he’s enjoying being a carnival worker. He started two months ago, as his father and mother also work for Wagner’s Carnival.
Brown said he came interested in the job through his family and by the fact it allows him to meet interesting people on a daily basis.
Albert Wagner, the carnival owner, like Brown, got started in the business because his father started the carnival in 1964.