a fairground life(aecc)

The year was coming to an end again, it was late October 1991 (ish). We were opened at Dunfermline, a quite unremarkable, quiet fair. The only hope of earning some decent money before closing for another season was the fireworks display at Bridge of Allan on November 5th. Things were to take a turn for the better though, my wife's uncle "j a" came in and told us that the Aberdeen exhibition & conference center would be hosting a christmas carnival. They were looking for rides etc to attend. At the time I was traveling the upright paratrooper and a juvenile waltzer ride that I had built the winter before. The wee ride was clean and tidy but had absolutely no artwork on it. Deciding to have a go for the carnival "j a" drove me to Aberdeen to meet with the manager. We had agreed before hand that I would take his juvenile train ride up also to create a kind of package deal.
We arrived at Aberdeen (my first ever visit to the city) and met with the manager. The set up was quite simple, the center would hire all rides and charge an entrance fee, all customers would ride free. We presented a few photos of the equipment, j a did most of the talking (he has kissed the blarney stone). When asked about the juvenile waltzer "j a" said, "we don't have any photos of it as it is in the painters being re decorated (this was a lie), what is it being themed as?", j a turned to me, I instantly blurted out the first cartoon theme that entered my head---"teenage mutant ninja turtles" I said. With that I submitted the hire fee. When we left I said to j a , "what will I do if we get in?" He answered-"get the paint brushes out!". I almost didn't want to get accepted now. The paratrooper was not the best ride in the world. It was clean and tidy, had decent lighting but as a thrill ride, was old hat. Luckily our strong point was the two juvenile rides. The center did not have enough applications for kids attractions and our two would ensure our acceptance. A month later the letter came through. Now all I had to do was paint the waltzer cars. It was early December, we were wintered at Bridgeton Glasgow. I had been using an old M reg Ford D series to pull the juvenile waltzer. It had a low 16ft box body on it. I emptied it right out so that I could paint the waltzer cars in it and then hope fully (if it would fit) pack the juvenile train ride in for transporting to Aberdeen. My wife bought some comic books, I removed the cars from the ride and put them in the box body. It was freezing inside. I used a 500w halogen to see and heat the paint work. The light was positioned close to where I was working and this helped dry the paint and stop it from drying flat. Every night I would do one part of a car, and every night my wife would hand in a 25p mixture bag from the ice-cream van to keep me going. After two weeks the job was done and everything put back together again. j a and I did manage to get his juvenile ride to fit into the back of the D series with enough space left over for the transformer (I borrowed from Portobello fun park again) to fit into. The D series only had a small four cylinder engine but it did get there and back (slowly).
It was 5am when we left Glasgow on a white December morning. My wife was following in her VW Golf with "r" (about 4 at the time) towing "b"s wee trailer. This (at the time) would be my longest single journey (140miles), I was worried about getting lost in Aberdeen, breaking down, having a puncture and being pulled in by the commissioners. I'm glad to say all went well. When I arrived at the center we set the wagon in the rear carpark and put the lorry in the building. The next day we built the paratrooper up inside. It was a neat fit and we had to set the ride so that it fitted in between the roof beams. I could not erect the front headboard as the uprights were designed to be staked into the ground, so we only erected the perimeter fence. The next day "j a" arrived with the wee machines and we quickly got them set up. The wee waltzer needed washed though as the road spray was about an inch thick over it.
For the next three weeks we opened in the warm and dry. After the first week we sent "r" back to Glasgow with his grand parents. He had a peddle car that he rode around in the hall on. Only thing was that he insisted on running into people deliberately! Then the top hat on it was when he decided to enter the paratrooper ride by walking through the fence and under the loading platform while the ride was going! He was so short that the carriages flew over his head, I dived out to get him and give him a row for it. Poor "sm" had seen him from his arcade and sprinted across the hall to try and catch him, what a fright he got. So "r" was sent packing for all our benefit. He came back only for x-mas day with our parents and then sent away again until we returned to Glasgow. That had bonuses though, every night after closing my wife and I could go out, it was like a kind of holiday. There was only one minor hiccup. One day a customer came off the ride and complained that the ride was not safe. It turned out that he was a fitter in a well known tyre&exhaust franchise (the quick ones). He said that the shock absorber on the ride was not right. He complained to the management who in turn sent for the H S E. I knew the ride was ok but I still had a knot in my stomach, what if they wanted me to leave? would I get paid? etc etc. Anyhow when the HSE came I showed them around the paratrooper.It turned out that the complaint was because of wear on a shocker mounting eye bush. This had play on it. I removed the shock absorber and made the ride go. I explained that this did not hold the carriage on and that the shocker was only to smooth the ride out. Further more it was not the same application as a car shock absorber. I also replaced the bush for arguments sake. With that all parties were happy and it was business as usual.
There were a couple of English showmen here as well. "n pont" had the first ARM skymaster I ever saw here. It was lit up outside to act as advertisement. J collins had taken delivery of his new tri star ride here. It came brand new from the factory. Little did I know I would buy a miami from him 12 years later. Clarkes had their waltzer here. To further promote the fair "sm" drove his juvenile ferris wheel around the city center while erected and lit up by a petrol Honda!
Very late one night we were all awoken by a loud bang, we thought it was a bomb or something. It turned out that one of the lorries had a blow out while sitting in the carpark! Business was not great for the AECC management. The attractions I can remember were ponts skymaster, whites easyrider ark, clarkes waltzer&quasar, whites sizzler twist, collins tri star, gambles ski jump, whites dodgems, johnsons big wheel and possibly some more I cant remember.The old paratrooper was one of the busiest rides in the place, but only rode between 400-600 passengers per day and most of those were repeats. It was easy money for us and we were paid in three installments by cheque. My wife spent the first one on a telly & video recorder! (things were tough back then). We left Aberdeen and returned to Glasgow mid January, right back to where we had started from. I really enjoyed it there. What a great new years party we had. I will try to find some photos.