Marshfield, MA - The Rules of the Road Parties

So after my first couple weeks at the carnival I definitely had a few interesting experiences. After the Skowhegn fair was over my friends Del and Jen and I headed back to Bangor as the show moved on to Marshfield, MA. In the midst of everything we had stayed in touch with our friend Aurora whom had headed to Marshfield right after Bangor. She said if we wanted to come to the next spot and travel for the rest of the season she could get us all jobs. Of course we all agreed that it sounded like a wicked fun idea so we packed up everything we figured we would need for the next 2-3 months and piled into my car and head south to Marshfield.

Funny thing was Aurora didn't actually get us any jobs. When we got there she just brought us to the guest relations office where we met with the ride supervisor, Hansie, and chose what we wanted to do; games, food, or rides. We basically went through the same process any old joe would go through if they wanted a job at the carnival. Jen chose games, Del chose food, and I, mistakenly, chose rides.

Now if I would have known what a ride jock's jobs consisted of to begin with, you can bet I never would have volunteered for this job. Between the 11-13 hour days, 7 days a week, the $250 bring home paycheck, and the disgusting tear downs and set ups, this job wasn't even close to being worth it. Now let me say right now, the guys that do this every day of the season, year after year, they have my full respect because it has got to be one of the hardest jobs, not just at the carnival but in general. I got off easy, I did every tear down and I worked my ass off doing it, but set up...well I may have slacked off a little bit, well actually I basically never did a single day of set up. The way I saw it was I had no clue what I was doing, and if i did go to set up I would probably be more of a hassle then a help.

Throughout the 5 spots that I worked for FS in the 07 season I had the joy of working on the crazy bus, the super slide, the bounce house, the orient express, the flying elephants, and the crazy bus again. Of course someone eventually noticed me not working at set up and that is what led to me being stuck on a bounce. You see, the bounce houses are the most undesirable "ride" to work on, mainly because you deal with all children from the age of 10 and under and because you literally do nothing all day. If you ever walk down the midway and see someone that you know is usually on a major ride sitting on a bounce, you know they seriously messed up.

I can definitely say that Marshfield was the first spot that I got a taste of how hard carnies really can party. Now that I was actually working I realized how hard it was to party every night until 2, 3, 4 in the morning and then be up in time to get showered and ready for a 9 or 10 o'clock work call. I didn't realize until later spots that I had actually met people in marshfield, quite a few actually, that I could not even remember for the life of me.

Of all the memories and friends made in that spot I will never forget the one night the guys went over the deep end. Who knows what night it was, most likely a Wednesday. Wednesday was always payday for the ride jocks. And of course all ride jocks were on salary so we ALWAYS got paid, that was the one good aspect of being a ride jock. So needless to say Wednesday was usually the biggest party night. This one night every single person on that lot was drinking and having a good old time. I of course had horrible time perception but lets say it was around 2 or 3 am ride supervisors and bosses started trying to tone the party down. Others staying in trailers that were not drinking had started complaining about not being able to fall asleep due to the noise. Of course none of the intoxicated persons cared, they were having fun and that was all that mattered. Fair grounds security tried to come down and help to break up the party, unsuccessful of course. So soon enough they felt the need to call the police as no one on the lot could defuse the situation.

Now, if you and I are at a party and the cops show up, what do you do? You either act right or you run and hide, right? No, not right, not if you're South African or partying with SAs. When the cops show up to a party full of SAs they shoot the cops with pellet guns. Yes, pellet guns. They run and dodge in and out of the trailers, they jump on top of trailers, and they crawl under trailers, all the while taking aim and firing on the officers as they try to keep up with them. I could never forget looking out the window of my trailer and see one of the SAs shooting a cop in the back as he falls to the ground chasing another SA. Or the sound of someone climbing around on the roof of my trailer and asking what the hell that sound was. "Oh, that's just one of the guys" On our roof? Oh, ok, nothing out of the ordinary.

Needless to say the craziest parties I have ever been to and the craziest people I have ever met are at the carnival. Even thought almost every minute is crazy or overly entertaining, I have got to say it is one of the coolest places to work and live, and there is no way I would ever trade it for anything.