a fairground life(end Blairgowrie)

The photos are a small section of the fair on Saturday afternoon and the Skydiver at night.


Wednesday
5:30 am and the alarm goes off. By 6 am we are on our way to Blairgowrie with the first loads, skydiver and touring caravans. It is a little after 7 am when we arrive. The car park is clear and we position the skydiver and fun house on the plots. The caravans are parked on a tiny piece of waste land about 75 yards away. The grass is over 3ft tall, but we stamp it down as we check for obstacles. I use the jeep to position both caravans. We have to pack them in tight to make room for everyone. Just before 9 am we head off to Dundee to pick up the miami ride from the lorry park. My brother gets a lift with us to bring in his twist ride. When we return, these other two rides are set on the plots. The hired help had kept the car park clear awaiting our return. The plots are tight and everything has to be positioned exactly so as not to pertrude over the boundaries onto the road. We help a friend of ours to set his rock o plane on its plot. After that everyone gets stuck in and the rides are nearly all erected by 7 pm.
Thursday
First job today is to fit the new running light box on the miami. After an hour its up and running, (pardon the pun) it looks great with the new sequences. "r" then spends an hour replacing faulty bulbs. I do the same on the skydiver and spend some time replacing a triac in the lightbox only to find out the problem is a slack fuse!!! The rides are totally greased up ready for the weekend. I phoned to get a delivery of gas oil for the generators, It was last minute and luckily it will come tomorrow. Spent another few hours doing odd jobs on the rides. I must admit I do feel better when I've done a few jobs about the equipment.
The rides opened tonight at 6:30pm, it is always quiet (hence the stalls and kiddie rides stay closed) but I open anyway just to try everything out. We are all closed again for 8 pm.
Friday
We setup the water lasers in the morning. It has stopped leaking since "r" fibre-glassed the seam. (good job done). Shortly after the generator fuel arrived (relief). Next on the list was to make sure all the spot lights around the rides are working, then check all lorries for oil, water and derv. Again it was a 6:30 pm kick off. This time the whole fair opened and we slowly pegged away until 9 pm.
Saturday
This is the gaff day and yippee-No Rain. We open from 1:30 pm but don't get busy until after 7 pm when the buses return from Braemar Games. I always have extra staff here and just before 7 pm they arrive. The crowds did appear shortly after, but not as strong as in previous years. I did reasonable business though. This fair has never ever let me down. Even in heavy rain the locals still come out. It is a bit less hectic the last two years, I think it is due to the alcohol ban on the streets. In years gone by you would be tripping over bottles at the end of the night. This year there was only one " Bucky" bottle to be found.The ban did make it more comfortable. I only had to go out once when an idiot started to use the miami paybox as a punch-bag!! To be fair he did take a telling and that was the end of the matter. We closed shortly after 10 pm. With the extra crew we had everything down for 1 am. "m" took the fun house away as soon as it was ready for the road. The plan was for me following on with another load later, but that changed when I got finished as I could not get my caravan out as it was blocked by anothers and he was still pulling down. Anyway I was too tired. So in bed for 1:30 am with the alarm set for a 5 am wake up. I hear the other caravan leaving about 3 am.
Sunday
5 am- the alarm sounds, but no way can I get up, I roll over and awake again at 6 am. Since every thing is ready for the road it does not take long to get moving. I take the miami first with a caravan to Stirling. Then I return 3 hours later to get the next trip. I have been going to Blairgowrie for twenty years now. When I first went we had a VW Golf car. One Friday night we were driving to my wife's parents to take "r" there (out of the way for the weekend) when he was only a baby. On the way the fan belt came off the car on a back road. After driving what seemed an eternity (with one eye on the temperature gauge), I pulled in to the drive of a small house. I knocked at the door to ask for a lend of a torch. I had a spare fan belt but could not see to fit it. The occupants of the house were great, they took the baby into the kitchen in his carry seat and sat it on the kitchen table. Even luckier they let me wheel the car into their garage just to the rear of the house, where I changed the fan belt using his tools and spotlight. Shortly after we were on our way again. The next day on my return trip I stopped in to thank them with a box of Cadbury Roses and a card. Unfortunately they were out so I left the items on their doorstep. I wonder if they ever got them? Every year for twenty years when I pass this house leaving Blairgowrie I remember this story and I always wonder if the people still live there. This year I noticed that the garage is now a granny flat. The real memory is the one I have of my son sitting in his carry seat on their kitchen table. A priceless vision in my mind for ever.