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"