BY: HAYLEY BELL, HANNAH BOUDREAU & BRETT MILDEN
Walking up to the ring toss game, fairgoers are greeted by a toothy, friendly smile. “Five dollars for a bucket!” a raspy voice shouts from a thin man with tattered, weathered skin. Alfredo Laws, a 56-year-old carnie, has been traveling with the fair for fifteen years; this is his last show.
With the constant travel come many struggles, none of which top his most recent hardship: battling Stage III cancer. He was diagnosed six months ago.
Laws already has a partial lung. “[Now] they’re going to pull the whole lung out,” he explained. Although this means walking away from a job he loves, Laws will get to spend more time with his young daughters back home.
Laws says that traveling around working carnival games is a job he loves. Life on the road is interesting, as most of the workers sleep in portable bunkers that house anywhere from 8-12 men. Laws has been doing this so long, that his bunk is filled with lots of decorations and personal items that make it feel more like home.
For him, the traveling makes the job all worthwhile. The only challenge is that he doesn’t get to see his family often. Laws, who has two daughters ages 2 and 16, says he uses the phone to stay in contact.
“I talk to my daughter about four to six times a day. Well if I don’t talk to her she’ll text me. I always make sure I have my phone out,” Laws said.
Baby on Board
Laws wasn’t the only one claimed having a family while traveling so much was challenging. Stacey Lantz, another game worker and parent, said it can definitely be hard to raise a child when you travel so much.
Lantz, however, took a different approach to parenting as a carnival worker. Lantz’s son, Logan, travels with her from fair to fair and carnival to carnival. Despite being just a few months old, Logan sits with Lantz while she works either the duck pond or water gun race game.
“I don’t stay on the fairgrounds, so I couldn’t tell you how that is,” Lantz explains, saying that she typically stays at a campground in a camper rather than in the bunks provided by the ride and game company. “We like to stay away because of the baby.”
Family and Fair Conflicts
Family is a reoccurring theme when it comes to the cons of a traveling job with the carnival. Tammy Wellman, who works with the saltwater taffy truck, explains her schedule with work is always a priority.
“[We] start around July 4th and we are done by the end of October,” Wellman explains.
“Sometimes you miss big events, somebody’s birth, somebody’s death, both of which have recently happened, so, you know, that can be hard.” Wellman continues to tell that, because she was traveling with a carnival, she had to miss the funeral of a loved one.
“Timing was a little bit off… I made this obligation. These guys are like family to me so it was rock hard placement.” Wellman has known the owners of the taffy trucks for over 30 years, and considers them to be a second family to her as well.
Wellman explains that she enjoys the traveling aspect as well as getting to know other food vendors. Although she said the fair is certainly a lot of fun, “it isn’t as glamorous as it seems.”
After a week, the fair packs up and leaves almost as quickly as it came. Within just a few hours, the rides, lights, games, and food trucks are all gone, leaving a seemingly bare and desolate area that was once so lively.
All 329,793 attendees have gone home to continue their every day lives. But those who work with the games and rides travel on, repeating the cycle week after week. Laws continues his battle with cancer. Lantz works each day to raise her son while traveling. Wellman tried her best to balance work and family.
And in the words of Tammy Wellman, “it’s not always as glamorous as it seems.”
Laws would agree. “Oh yeah it’s hard, it’s not easy. It’s never easy.”
Culture Shock 