Yes, I was a carnie. It was my first real summer job and it was a blast. Thanks to Facebook, my carnie friends and I were reunited and the memories began to flow. Somehow, they were all lost in my head until now.
We'd head out at 7 or 8 am to open up. Fire up the cotton candy machine. Blow up the bounce. Blow up a million freaking balloons for the dart game. Work ALLLL day.
Believe me - it was work. On your feet, picking up children, wrestling children when they exceeded the time limit, diving in the ball pit after children, finding children in the maze, cleaning up pee from the children. Dealing with parents and kids who said "can I ride this for free?" "someone already ripped my ticket." Pushing the train up a hill because someone decided it would be cool to set it up on a slope.
Breaks were filled with cotton candy, carmel corn, blooming onions, gyros, and a pack of Newports. Off to work again...
We'd carnival it until about 11 pm, then it was either home or tear down. If tear down, we were there until 3 am. So yes, 8 am - 3 am. $5 under the table - not too shabby! I think maybe, subconsciously, this is the reason I got into safety. Underage workforce, excessive hours, machinery, working at heights... honestly, I'm SHOCKED I never saw anyone get seriously hurt.
But honestly, this was a great job. Hanging out with friends all summer, listening to Sublime, learning how NOT to parent, and laughing laughing laughing. Those were the days.
I'd do it again in 1990-NEVER!
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