The Duck Pond and The Short Bus

My last blog was basically a quick rundown of some of the finer points of the carnival life. From here on out I will mostly be writing a lot about the details of each aspect of the carnival and the folks that live and work there. I guess the best way to do this so it doesn't end up in a complete mess is to break it down into sections. Let's start with how I got a job at the carnival, and how i learned better.

I stumbled upon the carnival completely by accident, or now, looking back on it, maybe it was fate. After all, I have never found a job or life style that I had so much fun in. You see one night in Bangor, ME two friends and I decided to go hang out at the skate park and met a couple friends we used to go to school with. Now the skate park is directly in front of the fair grounds. We met this girl, Aurora, that happened to work at the carnival and invited us to go meet some of her friends up on the grounds. Once we were deep into the city of house trailers and bunk houses we were introduced to a small group of the SAs. Of course once the bars emptied out and everyone returned back to the lot we met many many more.

Long story short, just to spare you the high schoolish antics and un-needed details, my friends and I started dating a few of the guys and decided to go to the next spot, Skowhegan, to visit. I was the first to realize, hey, if we are going to be here anyway, I might as well make some money, so then I was introduced to the duck pond game where I worked my first carnie job.

By the end of Skowhegan I had only worked four days, one was cut short by an impromptu trip back to Orono, an old roommate of mine got me involved in an armed robbery case and I had to be questioned by the lead detective on the case, but that's another story for another time. I actually quite working for the owner of the duck pond just a couple days before the spot was over, it's quite a funny story that leads up to this event actually.

You see the way the camping grounds were set up was as follows. There was a line of about 20 trailers that belonged to Smokey's Greater Show's mexican workers, we always used to joke about jumping the fence to get back and forth to our trailer, which actually wasn't "our trailer". It was actually a large bunkhouse that belonged to FS way in the back corner, this was the bunk that housed all of our friends we met in Bangor. Slightly off to the left of the bunk was a short school bus, that for whatever reason, had the keys in it. We later learned this bus belonged to Smokey's as they used it to transport their workers. My car was often parked in front of this bus, we assumed it wouldn't be moved until the end of the spot.

Well the people I worked for were way over on the other side of the camping grounds in a fenced in area. This should have been my first clue, if these people had to be fenced into their own area they MUST have been trouble. Any way one night I decided, even though they didn't mesh well with my other friends, since I worked for this group I shall grace them with my presence for a few drinks and laughs. At one point in the night they had all been talking about how they really wanted to steal the short bus. They figured where it was parked right next to the SAs bunk the SAs would get blamed for it.

Now here is a quick side note. The SAs are usually very good looking, well mannered, and full of charm and great game. Needless to say these guys get a lot of girls, and apparently many of the American carnies had a problem with them for these reasons. There fore much of the American guy's free time was spent figuring out ways to sabotage the SAs, childish I know, but boys will be boys.

So back to the story. I figured these drunken idiots were just having a good time fantasizing about throwing the SAs under the bus, no pun intended. I soon headed off to bed back on my own turf. Now mind you, earlier in the night I had given a few of the SAs a lift to the store to buy themselves some drinks, I was pulled over for transporting alcohol under the legal age, I was let off with a warning but this is a crucial part of the following events. So roughly around 2 am I stumbled into bed, and about 2 hours later I was woken by banging on the door and people shouting..."They hit your car".....

They hit MY car...

With what?

....the bus....yes, the bus. Those IDIOTS that I thought were just blowing off steam actually came over to our side of the grounds, got in the bus, started it, and drove it....into my car!

Once I made it out side to the scene unfolding I spotted the bus, now instead of parked snugly in front of my car, relocated about 100 feet behind my car. At first damage seemed minimal, until I made my way to the passenger side of my car. There, along the entire length of my WHITE Hyundai accent, a huge yellow gash. And at the end was my tail light, completely dis-located and hanging by the wires. I Was Furious, on top of still being drunk. Well once I soaked in the scene and the responding office arrived you could imagine I sobered up in a hurry. Now here is what I was getting at earlier, the icing on the cake, the responding officer was the same officer that had earlier pulled me over for transporting. The same officer I had earlier convinced I would not be consuming any of the alcohol in my trunk, and here I was, three sheets to the wind in front of my recently redecorated car. Luckily, since I was the apparent victim in this case, she didn't catch on to my buzz, and was actually very nice and understanding of my situation.

Once the reports were taken and we realized there was no way anyone was admitting to who done it, everyone eventually got back to bed. The next day, knowing damn well who the culprit was, I asked for my pay for my time worked and promptly quit working for the people that were to blame for my car's current state. No one ever did admit to driving the bus, but several people did have the decency to ell me they had seen three people in the bus that night, the three I had already known it was, my boss known as Jr., and his two cronies, Chris and some bug eyed freak. Supposedly Chris was the one actually driving, but even though "he didn't do it" he conveniently was no where to be found the next day.

Since no one confessed no charges were brought and it since the bus was owned by Smokey's it was now their insurance's responsibility to pay for the damages. Of course that was a feat in its own and by the time I actually got a call back from them saying they were sending someone to look at the damages, it was about 2 hours after the car was repossessed, and this was about 3 months after the accident. needless to say during those 3 months I drove the car with the yellow stripe down the side and the tail light zip tied to the back. Might I add that zip ties are to a carnie like duck tape is to a Mainer.

There after we traveled to the next spot, Marshfield, MA where I decided to stay away from jointies all together and started work as a ride jock. Many adventures followed, but of course those are for next time.


Here are a few more Carnie terms
Green Help - anyone that is new or is a local working just for that spot
Townies - locals, usually hanging out after hours
Lot Lizard - usually a girl, usually does not work but hangs out on the lot trying to hook up with the carnies
The Lot - the fairs ground, the mid-way, where we sleep, basically any area we occupy while playing a spot
Donica - port-o-potties, out houses
Kiddie Land - the mid-way consisting of children's rides and entertainment