a fairground life
Up this morning and give the ERF the once over. I put two rivets into a strap to hold the washer resevoir, nipped up the brakes, tried the lights and of course kicked all the tyres. The rest as they say, is up to the gods! It did get me thinking though, as the rain started to fall. Here I am, travelling all this equipment, these rides, lorries, trailers, generators etc etc and I dont have the proper facilities to maintain them. I mean, does first bus service all their vehicles on the side of the road? Does Boeing overhaul their planes on the runway? Of course not! But 90% (most statistics are guestimates) of showmen have to do their work outside, on the yard or even at the fair they are attending. Why? Well most don't own propery. The ones that do, only own enough for their own needs. After all, we have only limited space on the yards and this is used for living on or parking. Showmen do try to hire sheds in the down season. The problem is that agents want 1-3 year lets, not to mention expensive rates and leasing. A few years ago I hired a large shed myself, for a period of three months and it cost thousands.If I were Mr King, my dream would be, a large yard separated into HGV parking with enough room to turn without reversing, wagon parking, a chalet section and the the bees knees- a large shed! Yes a shed big enough to build up at least two rides, high enougth to erect them properly. Proper tool benches with all the fittings. A pit in the floor for checking the lorries. Imagine how well maintained everything could be. When you think about it, this shouldn't be a dream, it should be a necessity. I did mention it to a planning officer not that long ago. He could not get past the thought of residentual and industrial together. I tried to explain to him that it was our way of life, we are used to the noise and the vehicle movements (and smoke). To seperate us from our equipment would be like taking away our children. No, he still could not understand it. Maybe I would be better catered for if I were of coloured skin or wore unfamiliar attire?
posted by showman @ 21:28
4 Comments
4 Comments:
Sorry but I enjoy reading you stories, But this is not the 1st time you have made derogatory comments about others not to your liking & your telling us that you dress smartly all the time? Why on earth should people with coloured skin be treated any differently from any others, Dont you take money from people with clothes not to your liking and from people with coloured skin. Dont you think that sometimes you sound racist! Remember that your blog goes out to all the world and not just minature Scotland where some of the pepole are very racist!.
dear anonymos,
The point I was trying to make is that, I feel showmen are an urecognised ethnic minority with special needs for our way of life. (hence the reference to colour, you don't have to be coloured to be an ethnic minority or racially abused.)
Showman, Your right you don't have to be black to be ethnic,
I am a fairground enthusiast and look at allthe web-pages to do with fairground life (mostly in the UK)
.. So can you tell us readers where you fit in to this ethnic minority see page as i don't see your group mentioned here or on other related web-pages?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minority_group
And I don't know ANY other ethnics who earn any were near the amount you earn per year from you three large adult rides and a fun-house & water-lasers for children, Not to mention how much all this cost to purchase, Also you have concessions for lorry tax and other benefits as well as having a huge amount of colleagues to help out should you need some advice or sourcing equipment and so on.
So your hardly hard done by are you,
How many wealthy ethnics do you know? I don't think for one second that your colleagues like Charlie Horne would like to be called ethnics.. so do you want to run that by us all again!
PS I don't have a web-page or email.
dear anonymous,
ethnic group, ethnos - people of the same race or nationality who share a distinctive culture. I looked it up on a google search, seems to apply to us showmen. There is no mention of wealth, so I suppose it is irrelevant. As for being called ethnic, I suppose that would only upset someone who was ashamed of their heritage or did not fully understand the term. Since you could not find a reference to showmen, I suppose that supports my claim that we are unrecognised as an ethnic minority. Racism, that is how someone else perseves you and not how you see youself.
This is my last comment on this.
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