A Day In My Life As A Carnie! circa 1968 LOL

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As a carnie (one who works a carnival) life was very rough & hard on me. Luckily it was when I was young. Very young actually as I was just a teenager. The hours were usually from 5 a.m. till about 2 or 3 a.m. Not very much sleep. Now the sleeping was a different issue all together. I usually slept in the back of one of the semis or in one of the enclosed rides like a haunted house or fun house. Once a week some carnies would pool their money to get a hotel or motel room. There was usually 5 or more that pitched in sharing the room without the staff knowing there’s be that many. I’m sure they knew. How couldn’t they really. Now as far as baths, showers while with the carnival, there was no such thing except when we got a room. There were always a few galvanized tubs & a hose. Yes very cold water wash downs, baths if you weren’t afraid of being seen nude by anyone walking behind the semis. The eating was the hardest part as a teen in a sense. It was all candy, hot dogs, and ever so often a good meal at a restaurant while traveling. Very seldom while at a sight did I eat at a restaurant. Washing clothes at the nearest Laundromat was always a joke as people knew who we were & made snide, rude comments all the time. I lived with it & never let it get to me mentally. Now the days started early to wash down all rides, tarps on games, & check all equipment in the area. Then a complete through the lot cleaning up any debris not cleaned earlier. That took from 5 a.m. usually till about 9 a.m. We’d have 2 or 3 hours to clean up, eat, relax, & chat with other carnies etc. Then usually noon at most places sometimes as early as 9 we’d open for the public. Then it was usually fun all during the day. After the carnival closed for the night it was time for the hard work again. Cleaning the ride or game I ran at the time. Then closing, shutting it down. Meaning move everything inside the rides, cars etc, & latching the tarp down over the game. Then it was off to clean the whole lot of food debris trash etc. Unreal the stuff I’d find. I recall finding a $100 bill on the ground next to a game I ran. Lucky days like that happened a lot as most people are actually careless at a carnival. Then came the time to turn in our stats, ticket stubs, earnings, company share of game earnings, etc. Then back to walking the whole lot double checking for messes. We always had problems with local critters getting at the garbage cans etc. So that was the next step. Make sure the cans all had lids tightly placed & the dumpster was closed. If we were at a sight near a lake we’d go swim/bathe at this time. By now it’s close to 2 a.m. and bedtime. So this is just a sampling of my daily life with the carnivals from many years ago. Hope you all liked it. I’m looking forward to all responses also. I am happy to share my life here to a point. HAHAHA! HAPPY POSTINGS FROM (carnie) GRANDPA BOB !! LOL.