a fairground life(rock o plane)

Last night was the end of the university exams. "r" went out on the town with some of his uni friends, as a result we got away late today and did not arrive at the borders village until nearly 2.30pm. It didn't help that I went the wrong way on the motorway and had to turn around. I knew exactly where I was going, I've been dozens of times, it's just I've got a lot on my mind just now ( that's my excuse and i'm sticking to it). We got stuck into the skydiver and were progressing well. Then we could see the sky darken and the thunder claps started. Within a few minutes it was hammering down. We only had about 40minutes of work to do, so we just carried on. We had no sooner finished the ride and the sun came out hotter than ever, but we were soaked through. It was approaching 6pm now. Time to head back to Glasgow again. Another 125mile round trip completed. Would anyone else travel these distances so their kids could stay at school????? Opening night tomorrow.

a fairground life(another one bite's the dust)

To be more accurate its another three. That is three fairs this year that are off or lost. Not even fairs that you could say were only recently brought into use, but three fairs of long standing. The first is Mariners Day in Camelon near Falkirk. I was not a tenent there myself (we did go once when I was about 7yrs old, 1975 or so) but that's not the point. It displaces other showmen and interferes with there lively hood. The reasons for this lost fair are not known to me at this time.
The second fair lost, was a one day event in a park at East Kilbride. The event is still on but with no fair, this is due to gangs of youths congregating near the event and fighting among themselves. This was a good one day for all the showmen who attended, I was lucky enough to attend this fair last year( as a one off). Again it had been a long running event.
The third fair was in Queens Park Glasgow. It was run by my brother. He took control of this fair about 9 years ago. The fair itself had been running from the turn of the century. During the last eight years we had problems from the local residents who lived across from the playing fields we were on. They complained about the youths coming and going from the fair. I went to a meeting with them, arranged by the council. They seemed more interested in how much the council paid us to be there. When I explained that we paid a rent to the council, a license fee, a police bill and that we were all self employed families they were a bit more sympathetic. We did get the fair back but the expenses increased due to security costs, fencing , stewards etc. There were a few neds at night, they were not allowed in so they hung around at the gate and no doubt put family people off from visiting. Business declined year on year. Eventually the costs exceeded the profit and the neds seemed more noticable (no decent family people to dilute them). This year there were not enough tenents to put the fair on. To be honest I'm glad to see the back of this one, I'm getting too old for the fist fighting! Perhaps it's true- the funfair does attract trouble or does all the trouble from that area just congregate at the fair for the free entertainment? I don't know where it will end, will anyone even miss these fairs or stop to think why they are no longer on. Probably not. Will the youths stop fighting, I don't think so, it will just be out of sight again. Sometimes I think we go too easily, not wanting to rock the boat. It's our children we are letting down.

a fairground life

It was nearly 4pm by the time we got to the village. We set all the touring caravans first. The local event committee have kindly shared the village green with me. Space is limited and since last year there has been a new footpath laid across the green. This meant a bit of shuffling of the equipment to get every thing to fit again. It took nearly two hours and then finally we got the D/zone set and Blakey's modern amusements (this happens a lot on fairgrounds, new obstacles popping up at random). It had been raining all day and the grass was beginning to get slippery. To prevent any ruts being made we used the double drive lorry to push the units onto the positions. "r" built the D/zone up when he arrived around 6pm. He is running back and forth to university just now doing exams. My daughter is getting ready for high school next term so we are trying to stay on the yard as much as possible for her schooling. So this week will be commuting every day Glasgow-Borders and back. Gone are the days of starting out with the big "wagon" and not returning to Glasgow until November. One day when I was a kid, I returned to Glasgow with my father in the summer time. I could not believe how warm, bright, clean and different it looked as I had only ever been there in the cold, dull winter before.

a fairground life(the scottish borders)

This week coming is the start of the border run. This is a group of fairs along the scottish border in towns only a few miles apart. This is my favourite time of the year. All these towns have rivers through them and when I was young, all the kids went fishing and swimming in them. These fairs all have a Sunday off aswell which my wife and I really enjoy. This was the norm in the 70s & 80s at most fairs, but not now, everyday counts. I took the skydiver down to our first border village and then returned to the yard. I had an hours sleep on the couch and then off to Bellshill for 6pm. The fair closed here at 6:30pm and we started to pull down. By 8:30pm the street was clear. I had to do a double rake, to shift the D/zone and the miami to the yard in Glasgow. I left one ride on the street by itself in view of the police camera (a windscreen was broken here last year) and took the other away. When I returned it was just after 9:20pm, all was quiet and we were soon clear of the street and on our way back to the yard again. Tomorrow its off to the borders with the DZ, the miami has another event, so it will join us next week.

a fairground life(Drymen show)

We were up at 6:30am to leave for Drymen. It was a nice morning and we arrived at the show for 7:45. A few finishing off jobs to the ride and we were ready for opening. The weather looked rather bleak over the distant hills and right enough at 9am it started to rain and then after 15 minutes it had stopped again. These heavy cloud bursts continued periodicly throughout the day followed by glorious sunshine. I'm glad to say it did not affect the business too much. There is a good turnout for this show and as there are a lot of country folk assosiated with horse shows, they come prepared with outdoor clothing and wellingtons or hiking boots. This show has been cancelled three out of the last four years due to flooding and it would be hard for an event to recover from this, but Drymen show seemed as popular as ever. We closed at 5pm, just as the beer tent clientel were coming out (Its not worth the aggro dealing with people worse for the effect of alcohol). By 8pm the whole fair was nearly away. The committe are very good and arrange a tractor to be on site to tow the vehicles out. The driver was not short of work. We got him to couple the unit to the ride by pushing it under with a straight bar. The big Massie-Ferguson tractor made short work of towing the skydiver out and onto the path. Look at the size of those rear tyres!!!!!

a fairground life(street fair)

I had to do a double trip today, so I took the miami first and parked it on a side street near the High St. Then I went back to the yard for the dropzone. I'm glad it's only about 8 miles apart. By the time I got the second load there it was 9:30pm. The road would not be closed for another hour at least so I parked the ride nearby. We waited until about 10:45pm, but the council still hadn't closed the road so we decided to start. The miami was first to be on site, we uncoupled it and parked the unit so we could set the d/zone. Then we started on the DZ because we had to get the pole up before other attractions could start. We fired in and had the ride up in a record 1hr. Then we started on the maimi. All the time the cars were weaving through the fair and looking at us as if we shouldn't be there. It's not our fault the council never closed the road, they know the fair is booked and the license in place and they collect a rental. Why can't they just close the road at a reasonable time? Any how we were all done for 1am and when we left the road was still not closed, glad we didn't wait for the council to do it.
Bed time now and up at 7am for the Horse show.

a fairground life(mot)

PASSED,PASSED,PASSED. The Foden passed it's mot, but only after a re-test this afternoon. It had failed on a number plate bulb and a bust tank strap. I returned to the yard and "r" removed the air tank to weld the strap while I went and bought another number plate light fitting. Within an hour all was done. I phoned the test center and explained I was from the funfair and would be out of the area next week. The kind receptionist managed to squeeze me in right away.So up we went and JOB DONE. As you may suspect I'm rather pleased. The smoke level was at an all time low, only 2.78. That a whole 2.2 under the limit, phew! Now thats out of the way , I will do a couple of small jobs on the miami and dropzone prior to the Bellshill high st pull in. A good start would be washing, as the miami still has an oily smear from the burst pipe saga. Street fairs require a bit more presentation because you can't hide anything around the back of the rides. It's shop fronts on both sides, front and rear. There aren't many street fairs, I only do two a year so I look on them as a bit of a novelty. Usually they return a better level of business. In Europe it's a different story. Most fairs are in streets and for durations far longer than here, even months! Not only that there are no generators, every ride plot has powered supplied from the town. Who won the war???????

a fairground life

We arrived at Drymen just before 2pm. The ground was soft but we managed to get the skydiver set without skidding. By the time we had started to uncouple the ride the front wheels of the unit had sunk 3 inches into the ground and the lorry would not uncouple. The extra weight of a generator behind the unit cab causes them to sink quickly. We had to tow it out by attaching a chain to another double drive lorry. When the unit was free it did move on its own, just enough to position it behind the ride. The weather was kind and we were all set up for 6pm. The repair to the PVC skirt was a good job and almost invisible. Foden MOT day tomorrow. Got my fingers crossed.

a fairground life(communications)

Still awaiting the next two fairs this weekend, so we are on the yard just doing odd jobs. I have used this extra time to do more paper work and preparation for future events. The mobile phone has been a wonder for our industry.No more waiting for letters to be forwarded or driving to places to get an answer to a simple question. Think back nearly twenty years ago, how did you ever manage without a mobile phone? My father had a phone book with numbers of telephone boxes near to fairgrounds, you had to ring it up and hope someone was passing. Another option was to phone the local police station and ask them to deliver a message, but this usually give the recipient the fright of there life as they thought someone had been in an accident or worse! Now we have mobile internet and email as well. Roll on the day of the matter/energy transporter- no more building up or pulling down or driving! By that time of course, no more funfairs......
We will leave tomorrow with the skydiver and head for Drymen. The weather has been kind so we should be able to drive onto the plot without being towed by a tractor(s). When this happens the ground conditions are usually so bad that the fair is knacked before it has even opened. We will hopefully get in and all set up so as to free up Thursday for the Foden's MOT and Friday for the pull in to Bellshill. This fair is on the High St and we do not get onsite until after 11pm. It's a late start and the cars sometimes ignore the road closed signs, which makes it a bit more tricky. There is a diversion in place so I wonder why we can't get on site at 8 or 9 pm as all the shops are closed anyway. This would let us get finished earlier and must be more convenient for the local residents.

a fairground life(down time)

I didn't do too much today as we are on the yard awaiting the next fairs. I spent some time on the foden for the MOT. Its good to have a couple of free nights after the last two weeks at Coatbridge. I did manage to get the torn skirt repaired for the skydiver. "r" dieseled up the lorries and changed the filter on the dropzone unit. I'm sure we will find more to do tomorrow.

a fairground life(monklands last roundup?)

When I arrived at the fair this morning I was suprised to see a burnt out mini bus in the carpark about 80 yards from the fair. When I asked what had happened, I was told that a running battle had kicked off at around 1:30am between two rival gangs. By around 3am some one had set fire to the van left in the carpark overnight. I asked if the police came and I was told that the fire brigade had put the flames out just before 4am while all the combatants stood around and watched them. Apparently no police ever came! This incident has nothing to do with the fair at all, but it wouldn't have taken much for it to escalate to involve our equipment. I suppose the security fence helped a great deal to prevent this. Its bad enough to go some where and earn little money, but to suffer this aggrivation aswell is too much. I seriously wonder if this fair will be on next year.
The weather was lovely and sunny today. The waltzer was well stripped before opening at 1:30pm. We only fiddled away and at 4pm the waltzer started to dismantle. By 5pm the whole fair was pulling down. Every one just wanted to get away from here. I helped "m" with the funhouse and then I went onto the Dropzone while "r" and the casual labourer finished the skydiver. At 9pm everything was away. I took one to the yard and then returned for skydiver. It was just before dark and about 10 of us dismantled the security fence and piled it ready for uplift tomorrow. The last two vehicles left together so no one was on their own. Its a relief to get away from this place. Its not victorian values we need to get back to, its a medievil law enforcement policy we need in this country.

a fairground life(water laser picture)

A friend of mine has hounded me to show a picture of the water lasers in operation. They were finished before Easter, but I only got around to taking the photo today.
This afternoon's weather was wild, strong gale force winds and torrential rain. The skydiver suffered slight damage by way of a torn skirt (a pvc cover that surrounds the base of the ride) and the funhouse required a couple of screws in a hinge that had become loosened by the constant buffeting. The wind is the single most feared weather condition for a showman, it can cause a lot of damage to equipment. Where possible we will use lorries to shield equipment, strap items down to vehicles or anchor pins driven into the ground and some rides may be able to lower the backflashes or headboards, but after that you just have to ride it out. The rain was so heavy that the funhouse stayed closed this afternoon as it was flooded inside and had to be dried out. Luckily the rain stopped around 4pm and the whole fair was open again for 6pm. Too late was the cry, as the afternoon was lost and the night was never going to make up for it. A better scenario would have been dry in the afternoon and rain in the evening. Tomorrow after we close at 6pm we will pull the fair down. Next week will be bit more tricky for me as we have all the equipment open at 2 different fairs 30 miles apart. That's if the rain stops as one of the fairs-"Drymen horse show" has been cancelled 3 out of the last 4 years! The last time I was there the river bust its banks. The water was so high it went into the lorry headlights. After the water dropped it took three tractors to pull the skydiver ride across the field and out of the mud. Luckily there was no damage, but it took a while to get everything clean again.

a fairground life(WWII)

I wasn't there myself, but I have heard the tales and rumours. Our young men of the time went to fight the Axis forces too. Since this life style we have depends on moving and hard manual labour you might wonder how it continued. I know that many fairs ended up staying where they were at the time war was declared. One of these fairs was in Perth in Scotland. Since the young men were away the woman and older generation kept the fair running. At night the rides were surrounded with black out covers and all the rides and stalls were placed so close together that the covers were draped over one to another to completely trap the light inside. This fair in Perth never missed an opening day in six years (except sundays). How they got the fuel for the generators is a little confusing, but ask no questions and I'll tell no lies! Many of the fairs had to stop traveling as the vehicles were commisioned by the Government to do logging or transport work. My grandad on my fathers side worked in the ICI munitions plant near Dumfries during this time. My gran told me this is where he contracted his bronchitis that brought about his early demise. For years I played with the brass pliers that he 'borrowed' from the plant. My grandad on my mothers side ended up in the infantry and guarded troop ships. At Dunkirk his ship was dive bombed by a Stuka and he was blown off the deck into the water. He was recovered , but was deaf in one ear from then on.He was promoted to sarge , but punched a cowardly officer and was busted down to private again. However he did earn his three stripes again. My wife's grandad was a dispatch rider in WWI and they called him up again in wwII as he knew the roads in France. This time he was caught by the Germans and was a POW until he escaped and was hidden by a French farmer. He got to Dunkirk and was evacuated. When he got to London all he had was the sand in the pockets of his Great coat. He traded it for cups of T while he made his way home to Inverness. He was in his forties now and the local Colonel needed a Batsman. That was the end of the frontlines for Duncan. He called his son after the french farmer that helped him. My uncle "w" was put on logging, I was told this was because he could drive the vehicle and work the winches. In Crieff there was a POW camp for the Italians. My Grans family stayed in a caravan behind the camp until the war was over. There is a hill behind the town. On top of it today there stands a lonely tree. My gran told me that uncle "w" cut all the rest down and missed that one because the gaffer had forgot to paint an x on it. Her other brother "r" was in Burma and Germany. The first day in the army they made him a corporal because he was the only one that could drive the troop transporter. He was blown up by a hand grenade and survived. I called him the bionic man because he had metal pins holding him together from head to foot! He still led an active life after the war. Just a few months ago I went to a funeral of an old showman. There was a military guard of honour to see him off. They told stories of this man that I had never knew. He was in the Royal Engineers and drove a bulldozer on Sword beach during the Normandy landings. His task was to clear tank traps and other obstacles so the troops could land. It must have been hell on earth.
In the Showman's Guild offices there is a telegram from Lord Beaverbrook on the wall. It thanks all the Showmen for their donation of a Spitfire to the RAF. It was called "The fun of the fair".
Apparently the Yanks were good spenders on the fairs, presumably because they didn't understand the currency or could it be a case of spending it because you can't take it with you (if you know what I mean). My uncle "j" had giant chair o planes, he told me that the paratroopers would go on the ride and when it was in full flight they would jump off and roll as they hit the ground!
There are many others that I have not mentioned, like many heroes they will go unsung. What's this got to do with a funfair life? Just a reminder to those who would beleive that we are here today and gone tomorrow that our fore fathers fought and died for this counrty too and we deserve to have an equal standing within it's society.

a fairground life(penny wise, pound foolish)

The brake chamber arrived just before 11am. It was a quick job to fit it and adjust the brakes up. Then we nipped up the other axles too. The lorry is booked in for MOT next week and the only real worry is the emissions test. The smoke level has to be 3 or under, the last two years have returned values of 2.9 and 2.85, not much leeway! Typically this showman's Foden is 23 years old, it has had 5 previous owners, it probably was designed to last only a third of this time, but as we only travel about 2500 miles a year the lorry will last me a while yet (as long as I can still get parts). Anyway my wife says she wants to keep it because she "likes the colour and its a good paint job". The lorry is so old that when I took it into to Cummins to have the injectors torqued (the first time it failed on emissions with 3.1) the young mechanic told me he had never seen this engine type before and as there were no old manuals in the office so he "Had to phone a friend" to get information! Hardly a statement to inspire confidence in his services. I did enquire about new injectors for the engine and was quoted £160 plus vat. Just as I was about to order them the sales man finished his sentence with "each". That's 6x£160+VAT=£1128, more than the vehicle is worth. Wait a minute! this vehicle has in the last 12 months had 8 new tyres, a piston and liner, a new clutch, wet tank, distribution valve, compressor pipe and blew off valve. Add all this up with the cummins invoice and its nearly another vehicle. It can only mean one thing- that's the dearest paint job in the business!

It was quiet tonight on the fairground, but I'm not going to complain any more, you get what you get, no more no less. After all it is the second week and people have more entertainment choice, more of the time , compared to twenty years ago.

a fairground life(learning curve)

alas yesterday evening the dropzone would not work again.for three hours we tried cleaning the brush gear and the bands to no avail. the ride would go 3/4 the way to the top and then stop. the alarm code shown on the display reported an air fault in the restraint system, but after checking this system we concluded the fault alarm was the symptom and not the cause. it seemed to be a connection fault on the bands. we could not get to the top area were we thought the fault was (12m high) so we decided to leave it until this morning and then lower the tower so we could get at the problem area. it was raining this morning and i said to "r" the ride will work because the rain water will bridge the connection. thats exactly what happened! the ride worked without us doing a thing. not to leave anything to chance we deliberatley isolated brush connections until we recreated the fault alarm. this indicated to us which band to inspect. since there are 12 bands each with 3 sections this did save a lot of searching time. we lowered the tower and inspected the correct band at the problem area. a mega meter confirmed our suspitions as there was a voltage drop across the joint. it turns out that the wire connections are not soldered or bolted to the band's copper rail , but only clipped on by means of a small copper horse shoe. this slip on connection had some corrosion around it and as soon as we moved it the connection resumed. it was only a matter of cleaning this and tightening the clip again. job done. this is our first season with the dropzone and all systems are still a little strange to us, but by the end of the season i'm confident we will have learned all it's querks and ironed out the wrinkles. after all it's only a learning curve!

after 1pm we started on preparing the foden for its mot, while ajusting the brakes I noticed we had a leaking brake chamber. Sometimes you can get lucky and repair it by changing the diaphram, but apparently luck isn't with me this week as I was informed I needed another chamber. it should arrive tomorrow.

a fairground life(odd jobs)

It seems that my whole life revolves around doing odd jobs. Every day there is a small maintenance task to be done. Most of the time I like doing the wee jobs that keep thing ticking along smoothly, especially if they improve or make easier some other task. Over the last two weeks I have been stripping out the fibreglass car seats on the skydiver. Then the steel frame is stripped of the old paint or rust, inspected and then painted with a metal primer paint with corrosion protection properties. Finally the fibreglass seat is spray painted with a black enamel paint. The painting came about because the seats were all origionally colour impregnated, but the sun bleached them and they went faded and patchy looking and this made the seats look dirty. I did think about moulded foam inserts and sourced suppliers for a quote. The best one I got was £35 for each back and £35 for each base. Great I thought , new cars for £700 +vat, then the kicker-it was £10,000 for the two moulds!!! Oh well, back to basics and £20 for a gallon of paint. Any how I have done 9, only one more to go. I also got that tyre fitted today. Tomorrow I will start on the Foden lorry preparing it for the annual MOT.

a fairground life(standards2)

In the late 60s to mid 70s there wasn't much variety of equipment compared to today, but the fair made up for this by having more "side shows" and live acts such as boxing booths or freak shows. In this politically correct world neither are welcome (rightly or wrongly). Then rides mainly consisted of the speedway, waltzer, dodgem, twist,ferris wheel, skid, octopus, dive bomber, trabant or paratrooper (upright). Some rides are still here today , but modernised, the waltzer,dodgems and twist are evergreens and will never go out of date. In Scotland now I do not know of any speedway, ferris wheel, octopus, dive bomber, trabant or upright paratrooper on fairs and there is only one skid ride. These all slowly disappeared over the last twenty years. Now the new thrilling list contains rides that would have defied imagination in those earlier years- miami,frisbee,freak out,the bomber, top gun, tagada, frogs, dropzone, orbitor, skyliner, superbob, matterhorn, inverter, magic carpet, breakdancer , mobile roller coaster the list goes on and on. Not only are these rides more thrilling but also some are computer controlled and have various safety systems built in to prevent operator error. Also these rides are designed by computer and structurally tested far beyond earlier rides. Even the power system has changed from old 110v DC to 415v AC with earth leakage trips and overload cut outs. The generators that power them too have improved to super silent operation and emissions are lower. Yes standards are improving.

a fairground life(standards)

The standards of funfairs are rising, the prizes, the equipment, the rides and even the venues. Lets look at the prizes. When I was a boy, a typical prize for a game in the late 60s was a record (old fashioned Cd for those under 25 years old) or a cheap glassware vase. The early 70s had chalk figures (usually a poodle or lady) about 3 inches (75mm) in length or a "Gonk". This consisted of a cardboard tube (not unlike a used toilet roll) wrapped in a coloured fun-fur with cardboard face and feet stuck on, pathetic! to say the least, but people won them and took them home, well the fun is in the playing not the prizes, right??? Then came the key ring fad and everyone won plastic keyrings from small highland kilties to plastic miniature pound notes. Then in the early 80s a clever dick of a showman decided to give away prizes when you lost! (Not to be out done, everyone had to do this.) These losing prizes started as posters from Abba to Zztop and all sporting teams in between. This practice became the norm. Then came the mirror with a popular theme printed into it much the same as the poster. At first the mirror had no safety edges and they had to be wrapped in tape to prevent the lucky win,I mean loser from cutting his fingers off while taking it home. Eventually they did come with a plastic edging. This prize giving for losing had some odd effects on our trade. The customer now asked what do I get when I lose? This some how seemed to convey the message that you can't win anyway that's why we give you a prize when you lose. Also it led to what became known as "con" games in our trade. You know the games I mean, when there is a large cuddly teddy on display with the sign saying "me if you lose", of course you can't lose even if you wanted to and when the unlucky lose,I mean winner, does win he gets- you guessed it- a key ring! To operate these games you had to be either a beautiful busty blonde or six foot six tall with a neck as broad as Tyson's and made of solid Brass!
Unfortunately another prize was given away also for losing, the Goldfish and with so many unwanted Goldfish being given away, many of them were tossed onto the ground and perished, this led to an animal welfare outcry and is why most local authorities have banned live animals as prizes on funfairs (I totally agree). In the 90s the "Plush Toy" appeared. At last something that looked worth winning, the soft toy got bigger and those clever orientals could copy anything even if they weren't licensed to!(it wasn't only funfairs that used these cheaper imports) This of course led to legislation that all toys had to have the CE tag on them and manufactured to a standard. This did have other benefits as it meant Mickey's eye wasn't going to come off when little Johnny chewed it and choke him. Today you can win Gameboys, mobile phones, TVs, Mp3 players, videos, CD players etc etc. Some prizes that we are glad to see the back of is "Pomagne"(cheap plonk, all alcohol prizes were banned by the Showman's Guild in the early 80s) and the Coconut (especially if you got one that was thrown back at you). Standards are definitely rising!
My favourite funfair prize was the rubber Jaws shark , available from 6 to 12 inches in length. If you over Thirty five I bet you can remember them. The worst must be the "I shot JR" bumper sticker.

a fairground life(monklands memories)

i took the tyre to be replaced and will pick it up tomorrow. the diesel for the generator did arrive around twelve so after that i had the rest of the day to myself. we only sorted the dropzone lights prior to opening. i'm glad to say there has been a pretty good police presence so far and the local teenagers haven't been too bad. the security on the gate toss them out if they are drunk or causing bother. only a couple of them tried to climb over the security fence, but they fled when the guard went over to them. what a country we live in, security fences needed around a family entertainment venue, young teenagers drunk out their minds on buckfast and god knows what else, swearing & fighting with each other and the boys are worse. people say that its the fair that attracts the hooligan element. this could be true, but then we only attract the people that live in that area any way. so if hooligans live there then hooligans we will get, on the other hand if we went to a smarter area then we would attract the people who live in that area. i must say i have went to monklands all my life. origionaly the fair was operated by whites and we tried several venues in the area until they lost the fair all together in the early eighties. then about thirteen years later my wife and i went back again under the new lessee- stirlings. its a good venue now on a carpark. the older sites were all waste ground and rubble. i can remember my mother complaining when i was a child that she could not keep anything clean because of the black ash dust off the ground. i went to school here too and it was here that i swam for all my badges in the old swimming pool and got every one from 50m to 2000m. we went swimming nearly every day for three weeks! then the travelling life was different as there were more of us children on the fairground compared to today when most stay behind at permanent home to attend only one school. i do think the way i was schooled did have its benefits, i am self sufficient, can easily talk to strangers and not afraid to ask for directions. i was dropped in at the deep end every time we went to the next fair and i went to a new school for as little as a fortnight at a time. You know what they say-"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger"

a fairground life(monklands 1st night)

well it stayed dry, but business was only half of last year. maybe its because the may holiday was only last week (there we go with the excuses again). tommorow i'm going to get a new tyre for the front of the skydiver unit. then it will be time to return for the diesel delivery for the generator. just some small electrical repairs to do as one of the channels is not working on the running light box on the ride. the dropzone has a section of lights out too, but this is just a slack plug.

a fairground life(clackmannanshire summary)

Apologies for not writing more , but i've been in Clackmannanshire for the last week. It has to be said this was the best fair the town of Alloa has ever seen. There were three new rides there for the first time. They were the energy storm, dropzone and the star of the show the extreme capriola from England. This ride is over 140ft tall. Unfortunately the ride was set up on a position were it was blocking the police communication signal from Stirling. The ride had to be dismantled after the first weekend. Personnaly I though this would be the end of the fair for the ride, but give the operator his due- he moved it to another plot in the park and re erected it again and was ready for Monday night.The fair is finished now and we have moved onto Monklands. I hope we don't have the same bother from the local NEDs as we did last year.Hopefully the local police will make their presence known more this year.