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.