Yup, County Fair is here

Our local county fair is in town, think someone died last year...

Actual Images of the fair being setup... http://www.forsythnews.com/news/article/3548/

Wonder who their cigarette sponsor is.

Carnies are a special kind of people. Just south of Tampa is a little city, Gibsonton. It is a retirement area for carnies. Very interesting place to stop for a beer. Side show freaks just walkin around. Bearded lady, 8' tall guy owned the bait shop, his midget wife worked there. I am not making this up.

Rusty_Rabbit84 wrote: Our local county fair is in town, think someone died last year... Actual Images of the fair being setup...

Luther and Tigger, which one is which though?

Give me odds that the guy with his back to the camera also has a cigarette in his mouth...

Smells like cabbage, small hands.

Which one did the killing?

Could carnies be considered the gypsies of America?

MitchellC wrote: Could carnies be considered the gypsies of America?

"Do not fear me Gypsies, i want your tears..."

We had a small carnival this year for our towns Sesquicentennial, and I was really surprised by how clean & decent most of the carnies were. There were several of them that were young families, with their small children with them in/around their attractions throughout the weekend.

I never could win the lizard with the ping-pong ball toss though...

The carnies got nothin on the folks who spend their time and money in the carnival...IMO.

Just about 30 minutes spent at the carnival makes a guy like me feel downright classy...

...and priveleged.

Clem

The Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. circus wintered in Deland, Fla., where I went to college. Junior year one of my college friends, a little blonde Pi Phi, met and fell for one of the trapeze artists and... wait for it... actually ran away and joined the circus.

Although it's obviously biased, here's the PETA fact sheet on Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. They were a rough-looking bunch.

Margie

There is a college in Deland? I got off Amtrak there a few years ago and thought I landed in 1956. The Cole Bros used to come to long Island every year, and almost every year someone in the crowd was killed, usually by lightning, and occasionally by the bleachers collapsing.

Actually, Wally, the circus HQ is right adjacent to the train station there, which explains why you thought you'd gone back to a time before there were a lot of the vaccines we take for granted nowadays.

The college, Stetson University, is a few miles away--the Amtrak station's actually a good way out of town.

Margie

I was surprised how far from everything the train station was. Atleast the the cab driver made me feel at home by taking me on a two hour drive to Daytona, like our cabbies do to out of towners looking for an airport.

I used to know a guy at TAMU, a math guy, working on a Masters. I knew him because we hung out at the same Harley shop. Anyway, I think he finished his degree and went to teach math at a traveling circus.

Back in a former life I used to bartend. (Cary Illinois) Every year the carnival would come to town and the carnies would hang out at our bar because we had a bunch of pool tables. They were pretty rough, but decent guys. One day they came in and one of the guys had a massive black eye. I guess he wasn't working as hard as expected, and the foreman beat the hell out of him. They didn't see it as a big deal, just par for the course. Interesting working conditions....

We had them come to Atlantic City once.. they make the freaks that are roadies (not the bicycle kind) look tame.