Shocked and Amazed - On and Off the Midway

Our engagement ended on Saturday evening and we tore down. Luckily, we did not have a lot of inside props to pack. The electric chair and the blade box were the largest pieces of equipment we had. When the tent was cleared of the props and platforms, we took down the banner line. Next, the side walls of the tent and the poles and, finally, the top. Everyone worked and we hired several local boys to help us. When the truck was loaded we pulled off the lot and drove all night to the new lot.

We had only one large truck and Muscles and Bobo took turns driving. Doc and his wife, Emma, had their own house trailer and Mazie and Tessie traveled together in their trailer. I rode in a car with Tony Dee and Roger, the dwarf.

The new lot had been staked out before we arrived by the lot man. He placed wooden markers in the ground indicating where each show was to set up. Once or twice the lot was small and we had to shorten our banner line by dropping a banner off each end. Doc hated to do this because the vividly colored and pictorially illustrated banners helped to bring the people in to see the show. We spent Sunday setting up the show and rested until Monday night's opening.

I became close friends with Bobo, the human pin cushion and Muscles, the human block head. We were all about the same age and hung around together when we weren't working.

Each Monday we would check out the new lot together. A carnival is composed of little units, each completely separate from the others. New shows and games frequently appeared at a new location and old ones didn't show up. The owner of each show booked onto the carnival. He paid a privilege for the space. It could have been a flat fee or a percentage of the ticket sales. On the fair dates the owner paid so much per foot for the space to book his show.

The three of us walked down the midway, heading for the two new attractions that had booked on for the week. As I walked between Bobo and Muscles, I felt like I was between two bodyguards. Bobo, whose real name was Vergil, was one tough kid. He had a Southern accent, but I never found out exactly where he was from. He had been in and out of foster homes and had been in trouble with the law. His last home was a juvenile delinquent detention center. He ran away from there a year ago and joined up with a side show. This was his second season on the road. It was several weeks before I found out how and why he became a human pin cushion. He enjoyed doing his act, which I found rather repulsive to watch. I asked him once if he wasn't afraid of getting an infection from the large hat pins he pushed through his skin.

His only show apparatus was a package of cotton, a bottle of alcohol and six long hat pins. He was glad our side show was heading south. We would end up in Florida in October where he was going to spend the winter. That's what he had done the previous season. He lived in Miami and did odd jobs. He also hustled on the side to make extra money. ( I didn't tell anyone that by October I would be back in high school for my senior year.)

Muscles was tough. His muscles had muscles. He had a pair of fists like sledge hammers. He had a foul mouth and couldn't say five words without uttering an obscenity. He didn't care about anyone or anything. The only thing he was interested in was sex. He spent all his spare time chasing girls around the lot and hanging around the girlie shows. He was the only guy I ever knew who had a perpetual erection. He was a potential trouble maker, as we found out before the season was over. He was hired on as a canvas boy and handy man. Bobo taught him the block head act and the bed of spikes. He performed them well and began to think of himself as the star of the show.

The first grind show we stopped at was a show housed in a 20'x20' tent. It had four large banners - two on either side of a single ticket box. The show was called "The World's Strangest Babies." Each banner pictured a small freak baby: the frog baby, the lobster baby, a two-headed baby and a cyclops baby. "They didn't ask to be born!" "Children of forgotten fathers!" "Drug abuse baby!" These slogans, and others, helped to sensationalize the attraction.

Everything was done to lead the public into thinking they were going to see live babies. They were not live - nor were they real. They were made of wax or rubber and were exhibited in large medical jars filled with colored liquid. These "pickled punks" were set up on a table inside the tent and displayed with articles and photos about real freak fetuses that had been reproduced from medical journals. There was practically no overhead and no salaries to pay as it was a one man operation.

As we approached the show the owner, a young man in his twenties, and his wife were starting to put up the side wall of their tent. They were having trouble because the canvas was heavy and wet. They must have loaded in the truck wet when they tore down at their last stand.

Millie smiled. "We had to pack ëer up wet last night. We were with the C&W Shows over in Doylestown, PA, last night and it poured rain for three days. Didn't even make our nut." (The "nut" she referred to was their operating expenses.)

"Well, I'm sure you're going to have a great week here," said Muscles as he went over and took the canvas out of Millie's hands. "I'm Muscles. I am the human block head over at the ten-in-one. Be sure to catch my act. I think you will find I'm different from anything you have ever seen."

He was staring Millie in the eyes. I don't think Slim knew what Muscles was really after.

We finished putting up the sidewall and, after some small talk, headed down the midway to check out the other shows. Slim invited us to come back and see his exhibit.