a fairground life (those that have gone before us)

When I was young, some 30 years ago, my two favourite uncles were Ratio (pronounced ray-sha) and Junior. These two men were a big part in our family life. The first was actually my Great Uncle, as Ratio was my Grans brother on my fathers side (my dads uncle). He had served in WW II , his first day in service saw him promoted to corporal because he was the only one that could drive the troop truck. He was a character to say the least. After the war when he returned home he started to travel again but this time down in London. There he had a big wheel and a Divebomber (single arm). Unfortunately I was too young to think to ask him how he came about these rides. He did marry, but did not have any children. In the early 70s he had sold the rides and took on a small hotel in Dunoon. There he was also made an elder of the church. When he had finished with the hotel he took on a small building at the coastal town of Dunbar. He parked his wagon at the side of it and turned the building into an amusement arcade. I can remember going to visit him there. It was about 1978 and I'm sure it only lasted the year. In 1979 my father bought our first big ride, the upright paratrooper. Since my brother and I were only kids at the time my uncle Ratio and his wife came to my dads aid and looked after the ride for him until I was old enough. He had an old Ford Transit van. Flat bed type with a single cylinder Lister generator mounted behind the cab. One time, while traveling at night, the lights failed on the van. Not to be stuck, he nailed three florescent tubes to the cab. One across the roof and the others down each side. Then he started the Lister generator and continued on his way (that is the truth!). The next few summers were great, we spent a lot of our free time fishing. The best memories were from a Loch near Dunkeld called Butterstone. My father, brother, both uncles and I would spend long days fishing from boats on the loch until it was too dark to see. Other days were spent on numerous Golf courses. One time while driving the Paratrooper ERF with his wagon on the back from Stranraer. The lorry lost all brakes near Ballantrae. "b" who was second man at the time was ready to jump out of the cab! Uncle Ratio managed to keep control of the lorry while coming down the hill into the village and eventually stopped it (The problem was the brake light pressure switch had came out and let the air vent. "b" wound in a bolt to block the hole for a temp repair). At 14 years of age I took on the ride and my uncle went on to do his own thing. He had made many improvements to the ride while it was in his charge. When I was getting married I took my wife to be and introduced her to him. They hit it off right away, so much so that we named our son after him. In 1987 death came to our door. My Great uncle died suddenly. It was a shock, a great loss. It was the first time I had any experience of losing someone. It has been a short twenty years since those long summer days fishing or golfing. For some reason I have never done either since, mostly due to having no time. I still think of him, especially going to and leaving Stranraer when I approach Ballantrae. The work he and his wife put in for us has helped give my brother and I a foundation to build on. My Great aunty "Polly" is still going strong today. I really should visit her more. There is a small oil painting of my uncle hanging in our bedroom.
When I started traveling with the paratrooper, my uncle Junior came to move it on numerous occasions. He took over from uncle Ratio. I was staying with my Gran during this time and it was her wagon that was towed behind the lorry. My uncle Junior was her son in law. He was a great help to us and time or distance was never a problem to him. On one occasion while leaving Crieff (about 1984), the spigot shaft on the gearbox sheared. This was on the steep hill right in the middle of the narrow town. The High St was brought to a halt. When the Police arrived they managed to get a contractor to tow the lorry out of the town for us. He towed us to the nearest lay-by. Later we returned with another of our lorries and towed the paratrooper to the next fair (Dunkeld). Uncle Junior didn't even bat an eyelid, just as-well because he towed us in several times in the following years. Death came to us for the 7th time. Next week it will be a year since uncle Junior passed away. He had no sons, only daughters and I was charged with the privileged of saying a few words for him.
Many have gone before us, but they leave a lasting imprint on us and our lifes. Simple things that you don't quite realise at the time. Take for instance my Grandmother, she had a card with a verse on it in her bedroom. When I was a kid, every time I spotted it, I would read the verse and try to memorise it. I can't remember what the handwritten message was on the back of the card, but the verse is still etched in my mind after some thirty odd years.
We are all travelers upon life's road
With many a joy and many a load
God grant us on our way we go
We leave behind some good to show
Some bit of hope
Some cheer to bless
Another's life with Happiness
Some seed that in some place takes root
And blossoms fair and bares rich fruit.

That verse seems quite apt now and those years just keep on ticking away.

a fairground life

I've never wrote for a week, nor have I had any inclination to do so! What does this mean? Is my life totally empty, boring when I'm not open? or am I fueled only by being a showman, open with his equipment on a funfair? That said, it has been a full and busy week for me, so the answer must be the latter, it must be something in the blood that energizes me when the fair is operating. So what's happened since the last sentences were posted?---
Monday
We did go to the wedding I mentioned before. As I sat and listened to the ministers sermon about being a traveling showman and Jesus being a traveling person too , I wondered just how accurate the term is for us today. I mean, to my mind a traveller is someone going from place to place on a long journey. Maybe never coming back, but always moving on with no roots or fixed home. Today it may be more accurate to call us commuters. We leave our yards to go to a fair or two then return when possible. The most time I spend away now is a few weeks at a time. How things have changed in these last, very short, seven years. Moving on, the Wedding was fantastic, one of the best I have been to, nothing to do with the pomp and ceremony, but just good company. In fact I enjoyed myself so much that my wife had to drive us home the next morning, stopping for me to throw-up on the side of the road. (I told her it was due to motion sickness as I was sitting in the back seat! Hr-mm).
Friday
The Scottish section of the Showmen's Guild had a luncheon today. I was not there. Thinking about it now, that was wrong. I had thought it was by invitation only, but that was incorrect and I should have made enquiries. I should have made an effort to be there and meet other people, to network, to promote showmen and our way of life, industry. My father in law did attend. He commented that there was not enough young blood there and that it was mostly the older generation. It is the same with the committee itself, the same reliable names year after year. How can they find the spare time? It caused eruptions in our home when my father left my mother, aunty and two kids to build up while he attended his committee duties. The same could be said for every Committee member no doubt. Possibly it should be like national service, every member called up to take a turn on the committee. There would be a lot to learn and people to meet. However it is a thankless task. The people that do it should be applauded, when they make a decision right or wrong, at least they gave up their free time for the good of showmen and that should be recognised and thanked. My father did say he enjoyed his time on the Committee.
Remember Galashiels? Well yesterday I got my copy of the reinstatement bill.
To repair the park cost several thousand pounds and then some. Spread over each tenant it was around £100 per head. This work was carried out by a private contractor. The park was badly cut up, but don't condemn the fair or the showmen. We were victims of the bad weather. Think a moment-the fair arrives in town, we operate our business, we spend some of our earnings in the town, we leave, the private contractor repairs the damage to the park. CASH FLOW! The fair has created a cash flow in the town, that can't be bad. Ok I know the park looked unsightly for a few weeks, but after all it is only grass. (The biggest problem with grass is that you get so much of it for FREE--that you have to PAY to get it cut!) So let no one say that showmen are reckless without regard to the sites they use. We want the fair to be on again in future years and hopefully a long long time before it needs any reinstatement again.
As for that list of jobs, I've been working away through it and knocked off a full 6 items (also finally got the antifreeze into the Foden). Unfortunately as soon as you cross one off, another pops up. That's life! Any way, plenty of work coming up this week.

a fairground life

Another fine day for this time of the year. I was up and away at 8am this morning to meet the diesel man and fuel up. Then I polished the cab of the Foden lorry. At Stranraer I had put a cover around it as the year before the youths had scratched their names into the paintwork. The cover prevented this but left a few rub marks on the cab too, so I polished them out. After that it was a check over and ready for opening at noon.The fair has got a turn the last couple of days, due no doubt to the good weather. The only excitement was when a ghost train car broke down. The operator got a few of us to help him lift it off the track. Then it was business as normal again for him, less one carriage. Two more days to go then it will only be weekends. I have a wedding this week coming then I will try and get stuck into that list of jobs I wrote.

a fairground life

Well everything is working. What can I say, it would appear that only breakdowns and mishaps make for interesting reading or content for writing. I'm sure something will be just around the corner. So not much to write about, just sitting in my box 12-8 every day on the Dropzone. After this week it will be only weekends until christmas.

a fairground life( French tactics )

So top of the agenda today was to repair the dropzone plug. I set off to get the items needed. I had decided last night that this connection part was always going to be a weak point, so I'm going to do away with it and hard wire the main right into the control box (plus save the price of a new plug). I purchased 10 crimp ends with 8mm eyes. When I got into the job it turned out I did not need the crimps, the cable ends fitted neatly into a connector strip and I tightened them with a hex key. That got us operational , but I will need to weld two irons onto the front of the chassis later to wrap the cable around for transportation. At noon we opened up, the rain came and it was very quiet until 3pm. At that the sun came out for a brief spell, too little too late! That was short lived and at 7pm the heavens opened up and torrential rain fell. The ground quickly started to produce puddles and at 7:30pm we called it a night. With all this spare time sitting in my box (blakey christened the term) waiting for customers I sat and wrote up a list of jobs that need done (28 in total) and worked out my previous weeks diesel bills. The price of fuel is up another 2p a litre, that does not sound much but that is £4 per barrel plus VAT, so it will work out to nearly another £25 per week for me. I can remember my mother complaining in the 70s that petrol would soon be a pound a gallon! Then the government got wide and changed to pricing in litres, all of a sudden petrol was only pennies again, WAIT A MINUTE! you need nearly 5 of those litres to make a gallon. I think we need French tactics and take to the streets.

a fairground life(stranraer conclusion)

Saturday
I was up at 10am. Since I was moving tonight I picked up the loose items (Q hand rail, ladders,spare main) around the miami and packed them for the road. The lorry had sat for 3 weeks so I checked the water, oil and fuel levels. I then went to start the lorry to thaw it out. What do you know! it started A ok, I wouldn't have been surprised if I had to attach the battery charger. Since all systems were go for tonight and we would not be opening until 2pm, my wife and I went for lunch at Portpatrick. This is a small village on the coast about 7 miles from Stranraer. As the name suggests it is a small port. The setting is quite lovely and if you are ever passing it is worth a visit. After a fine lunch we returned to Stranraer in time for opening. The afternoon was very very quiet. I closed for tea at 4:20pm and did not open again until 6pm. At 9:20pm I closed. Unknown to me at the time, the top end of the fair had closed at 9pm as a bit of trouble had erupted at the Tagada ride. I don't know the full story, but seemingly four youths had pounced on the operator and other showmen had to pull them off. At 11pm I was ready for the road but still could not get out of the fair because of other rides and vehicles blocking the way. This was only due to the narrowness of the location. One good thing about most rides being trailer mounted is that it relieves the need for a vehicle to pack it into. Take for instance my old upright paratrooper, that was awkward to erect and pack up. I had to stand the pole up, then take the lorry off and move it to the opposite side. This was in the middle of the fair, erect the top of the ride then move the lorry again in behind the ride before finishing it off. That was three times to move the lorry and at least one of those times I was hindering someone else from erecting their centre plot equipment. Of course it was another three times in reverse to pull the ride down at at least one of those times the centre plot I mentioned was hindering me now. Multiply that by every large ride on the fair (chair o planes, dive bomber, octopus,dodgem, big wheel, skid etc all needed the lorries moved into position) and that's a lot of traffic! With trailer mounted rides, if there is a passage through the fair it pretty much is always clear ( except when it is tracking laid on a soft field, then showmen see it as a good place to park their vehicles, which defeats the purpose of having it, as you can't drive along it to exit the fair!!!!!). Eventually just before midnight I did get out onto the main road. We coupled the touring caravan to the jeep and reversed it along the pier onto the road. I let my wife go first while I followed so that if there was a problem with the jeep, I would be coming up behind her. At 2:20 am we arrived at the next fair. I pulled the machine on its plot and headed for the yard with the trailer. By the time we got there and got set it was 3am, time for bed.
Sunday
8am and the alarm goes off. I give "r" a knock and just before 9am we set off to build the miami up. It is a quick easy machine to erect and by 11am we are ready for opening at noon. The rain started just as we opened, so it is quiet, plenty of time to write this blog! 6pm arrived and closing time. As we switched the power off at each ride "r" discovered that the DZ plug was melting. On closer inspection we found it was one pin of the plug. So that will be tomorrows job.

a fairground life

Thursday
not much to report, I did eventually get the painting finished this afternoon.Business the last three nights has been terrible.
Friday
up this morning and took my wife swimming. Exercise for her and a shower for me. The touring caravan does have a shower unit and running hot water etc, but you have to be quick, any longer than 2 minutes and it turns into a COLD shower. If they ever have speed showering as an olympic sport I'll be in there with a shout. The weather has turned wet this afternoon. It is that fine fine drizzle that soaks you right through. No doubt it is on for the night.This time tomorrow and everyone here will be thinking about pulling down. Three weeks anywhere is a long time these days, anyway it is nearly a week since I saw "w" and "r". I bet the grandparents can't wait to see us return aswell!

a fairground life

Tuesday
I wake "w" up for school, while her mother runs her to school I have a short lay in. At 10am I leave to build up the dropzone. "r" and "m" are otherwise engaged so I will do it myself. I arrive on site just before 11am. Thankfully the rain has stopped (it was bouncing off the wagon roof at 5 am this morning). The DZ is not a hard piece of equipment to erect, I get a couple of lifts from friends when I need them for the bass bins. I swear, I will find some where to put them so I wont need to lift the f*@%!*s any more. For some reason the tower bolts seem awkward and take a little longer today (probably just tiredness). I have the ride fully erected for 2:30pm. Then I spend another 30 minutes adjusting the tension of the wire ropes. I noticed they seemed a bit looser at the hire (no wonder with all those full runs). They only need 25mm to take up the slack. At 3pm I leave to return to the yard. A quick shower and on the road to Stranraer again. On the way the jeep cut out. I had to reset the imobiliser with the key. That's twice in two days now, so that will need returned for a service. Hope it makes the journey back on Saturday night OK while towing the trailer. We arrived at Stranraer just after 6pm. Its the third week now and business is dead. This used to be a two week fair with the last Monday as the gaff day, opening from 1pm. Now the Monday is just another ordinary night. The tenants used to leave here and stop at Girvan for a week fair, but that has went by the wayside. Another fair that followed here was Ayr and that too is no longer on. I myself used to leave here and go to Perth for two weeks to finish the season off, some others still do, I will be stopping at Glasgow. Business is that good tonight I am writing this while we are open. Suppose I better hang it up now and try to encourage some punters onto the machine.
Wednesday
The sun is shining again and I decide to get on with finishing painting the miami boat frame. So I do another section. Now a tip for any other showman who may be reading this and is going to paint under their miami boat (slim chance I know). Tip- start with the boat low and paint accross the frame at shoulder height, then raise the boat a couple of feet and paint accross at shoulder height again. Repeat this until the boat is above your head, by then the frame is finished and the wet painted parts are moving up away from you. Sounds simple I know, but until you acctually do it the wrong way-you won't think of this, that is why it will take me another day to finish this job as I was having to work over the wet paint I had just applied.
I have attached some photos from the hire event- look how high the twist was and imagine the dodgem being higher before it was moved! The bouncy castle would not fit inside so we improvised.

a fairground life(hire conclusion)

Saturday
Day two of this event. We're up for 7am. I wanted to be back on site before the security left, also we still had an hours work to do. It was just after 8am when we got on site. My brother had the twist half erected by then. I finished off a couple of jobs and erected a barrier around the ruts from the day's before problems. The weather was sunny and at 10am prompt we opened up. It was only a few minutes before the first families arrived. By noon it was quite busy. That was it, we never stopped until 8pm that night when it slowed for the last hour. 9pm closing time, we all left the site and the overnight security remained.
Sunday
Day three, again an early start. We arrived just before 9am to the site. We were an hour late, but the security had remained until we arrived. We use this firm a lot, they are very good with us. In fact I had arranged for them to be onsite during the evening aswell even though the client had arranged their own security. I had expected a lot of gate crashers to try and take advantage of the clients free event, but this did not happen. Glorious weather again and at 10 am we started, this time it was after 11am before any customers turned up (not surprising being a sunday morning). However the afternoon was much busier. The Dropzone had a Q for several hours and rode full for six hour solid! I am pleased to say that the families attending made full use of the attractions provided. This was the hardest the ride had worked in my possesion and it performed well. At 8pm the organiser closed the event. I was glad to say the least, my legs were aching as I had been on my feet since we opened! At that the crew arrived to help me pull down as "r" was still at Stranraer open and would not be back until midnight as he had uni in the morning. I started the crew on the skydiver while "m" and I did the funhouse, then I lowered the pole on the Dz before returning to assist with the skydiver pulldown. Then back to finish the DZ. We had everything down for 11pm and the crew left, they are all good lads and have there own jobs through the week. I have known them all for over 25yrs. Due to the ground conditions I did not couple anything up, one wrong move in the dark on this terrain would be a disaster. So Home time.
Monday
9am and off to pick up the rides. Using the paths we got everything out without a hitch. The only hick up was having to put the battery charger on the lorries to start them, it is that time of the year again when the cold damp nights kill the charge. I did two trips to the next fair, taking the DZ first. When I arrived with the skydiver I started to erect it right away. At 4pm "r" came over from uni and helped me finish off. We are supposed to be open with the miami tonight at Stranraer aswell, but I just can't do it, you can't be in two places at once, so the ride is closed tonight there. I will complete the DZ tomorrow morning and then drive to Stranraer to finish the fair off there this weekend then bring the miami in through the night to catch the Sunday afternoon here. No rest for the wicked!

a fairground life(hire from hell)

well it started off not too bad, the marquee was only a few meters out off place and the fenced area was only 50m square instead of 60m. We tried the dodgem on one plot but the slope was deceiving and we had to move it. All becuase of those few meters the marquee was out. Then we set the skydiver staying on the thin narrow gravel path through the site by reversing onto the plot. The other tenants arrived and started to erect in the marquee with the small gear. The merchandise arrived( supplied by the client) but the toffee apples were off, I told them prior to keep away from perishables! I got the skydiver 50% up by the time "r" returned from uni. While he finished it I went for the Dropzone, "m" fetched in the show. The show was erected by the time I returned with the DZ. Then "R" left to open at Stranraer.Due to the pen being smaller we quickly re arranged the layout and I reversed the DZ into its new plot along another narrow gravel path and started to erect it. Then one of the tenants tried to take his empty lorry out over a grass section. ohno glug glug down it went. We tried an 8 wheeler to pull it out. No go!. Then I had a brain wave. We used the winch on the back of the show, even though it was erected and we could not move the lorry. We attached a snatch block to the 8 wheeler and threaded the rope through to the stuck lorry in a v formation. I felt sure the lorry would be out in no time. WRONG. The 8 wheeler got dragged in. After several attemps and chocking the lorry wheels the winch could not do it the angles were too much. Admitting defeat we sent for a proffesional recovery lorry. GOOD JOB, because in the meanwhile my brother buried the twist, he tried to reverse in the same as the skydiver. Not having a guider to help him he went off the path and that was that. While waiting for the recovery vehicle I erected the D/zone. When the recovery vehicle came, it quickly got the first vehicle out. His winch is bigger than mine ( a man thing). Then it took another two hours to take the twist out, then turn it, then turn it back again, then reverse it in again, with a guider (me) keeping it on the path. By that time the overnight security arrived, it was dark and we had been there since 9am so we called it a night. The Twist will get set up tomorrow and then we will have a bit of gardening to do! Worried about re-instatment now. Still two more days to go with this event. Surely it can only get better.
The scenes would have made great photos, but when things go really pear shaped, the blog goes out the window, sorry!

a fairground life

Wednesday
Surprise surprise! the day I wanted to do some painting was wet. As I said, it is not unusual to lose a couple of nights here due to the weather. Most of the fair did open at 7pm, myself included. The most noticable closures were the dropzone,twister and other miami. As a wise showman once said-"if you open, you can always close again!" And that we did at 8:45pm, but god loves a trier!
Thursday
Glorious sunshine today and I got right into the painting job. I only spent two hours on it though and left it half completed. I decided that I will do it over a couple of days next week. A few short yeasrs ago I would have pressed on with the job right up to opening time to get it finished, not now. Maybe it's my age, maybe it's laziness. Tonight back to Glasgow to prepare the other rides for a corporate event we have on at the weekend.

a fairground life

The pictures are to give an idea of the long narrowness of the fair along the sea front. The future plans are to turn this area into a Marina. I wonder what consequences that will hold for the fair???????
Monday
Back down to Stranraer again for 5pm. We are having a good run of weather at the moment for this place. It is not unusual to loose a couple of days here, if not a weekend to bad weather. Nothing much to report other than a poor turnout compared to last year.
Tuesday
Took two trailer tyres to be changed at the tyre services. Ended up only ordering one as they are much cheaper in Glasgow. Then to the motor factors for a gallon of anti-freeze (it is getting that time of year again) for the lorry and set. This time got none as it was £18 plus, compared to £10 in Glasgow! As I left the shop I could here my late fathers voice ringing in my head-“it’s a cheap engine you know”- meaning get it now, rather than tempt fate waiting until I get back to the city, but you can’t help your nature. When money is tight- a pound saved is as good as a pound earned! Now onto the hardware store for 1/2 gallon of paint for under the Miami seats frame. This will be a good job done if I get it painted here. This time the price was comparable with Glasgow. On my way back through the fair I could see numerous showmen doing odd jobs around their equipment. This was the way it was years ago at every fair when no one commuted back and forth from Glasgow. That’s one good thing about Stranraer being so far away – everybody stays here (except for me it seems). So tomorrow I too will be painting away (weather permitting of course).
The local library is just across the road, I popped in on the off chance to see if my temporary membership from last year was still on the system. A few mouse clicks later and I was issued with my IT login password again. So if you are reading this before Friday it is thanks to the library. It was here last year that I searched for the Dropzone ride that I purchased. The rest of the afternoon I spent on the phone organising future events. To be honest there is a bit more going on in my life, but you can only divulge so much on the web, at least only I can.