When you think of the term “carnie/carny,” you probably assume that they are; unclean, toothless, bearded women, extremely cranky, full of tattoos and piercings, annoying, someone with a dead end job, and the list goes on. First off, I would like to say that we are actually really clean people, like we smell really good for the majority of the time and there are no bearded women and we have all of our teeth. Some of us do have tattoos and piercings but that doesn’t mean anything bad, it just means we are taking advantage of the clean, unmarked body and turning it into a piece of artwork. We only get cranky when we are hungry or it’s hot out, or angry customers made us that way.

I have been a carnie since 2012 and, honestly, it is probably the most fun you could ever have sober. Many people ask me what I do when I go home for the summer and I tell them, I am a carnie/carny, and I tend to get a dirty or confused look because they didn’t expect a girl like me to be a carnie/carny. I love being a carnie/carny and I love telling people I am a carnie/carny because it’s a great job and I have many reasons that I will explain soon why I love being a carnie/carny and working for carnivals.

1.) The People - The children are almost ALWAYS happy, continuously laughing, and full of energy. Running from ride to ride, playing game after game for endless hours. Being able to eat as much sugary carnival food as they can fit into their mouths. The teens, are always on their phones whether it’s calling their parents to check in with them, calling their friends to meet them at the local fair, or taking an endless amount of selfies to have some type of proof that they indeed had a great summer vacation. The parents are walking zombies, they just follow their children that are running from one ride to another and one game to the next. My favorite people I see when working at a fair are the drunk people! Yes, I just said I love drunk people! The things that drunk people will do and say to me while I am at work is amazing. But sometimes the drunk people are real jerks (and that’s me just being nice.) I have witness both sides of the spectrum when it comes to drunk people no matter how old they are. A few weeks ago, I witnessed first hand a older man that was extremely drunk and was being more than a jerk to me. He was so bad that he made me cry (and trust me, it takes a lot to make me cry) and then was escorted off the field. Every weekend, I get to see different kinds of people, sometimes they make me cry because they are being jerks, or sometimes they have me laughing so hard I can’t help but cry.

2.) The Fireworks - I am a big sucker for fireworks. I absolutely LOVE them. I could probably make a magazine with the number of pictures and videos I have of fireworks from every fair I get to work. There is just something about the loud boom and bright colorful designs that makes me happy, like taking a kid into a toy store. It’s the way, everything at the fair stops for ten to fifteen minutes to watch them. It is the happiness you feel and see when you see little children watching their first fireworks, couples young and old watching them closely, families laughing, taking pictures, and making memories of the summer together.

3.) Tear Down - “Let’s make it a memory” - Jeff Lloyd. Those magic words are ALWAYS my favorite after working three days at the any fair. Those five little words mean a lot to myself and my coworkers. Those five little words mean that it is finally time to start tearing down our games so we can move onto the next fair. Tear down- where we put the guns in the coffin, put the bottles away, take flags down, sometimes fight to get the Striker down, and where we have a competition on who’s hands can get the dirtiest.

4.) Coworkers - I honestly work with some the nicest and funniest people in the world and I’m not saying this because I am a suck up, I truly mean it. I worked for a local ride company for two years and felt like a nobody, there was a good maybe handful of my coworkers that were extremely nice and friendly to me. Now that I work for a game company, my coworkers are like my family. We bring homemade goodies in almost every weekend to share with all of us, we share snacks we each other, I play fight with my boss, randomly sing and dance to Beyonce and Taylor Swift with my coworkers Sam and Bridget, we carpool together to the fairs, we stay over at each others houses and have carnie get-togethers. Some people dread going to work because they hate their bosses, their coworkers, or both, BUT I love getting ready to go to work because I know I get to see me carnie family and more memories get to be made.

5.) The Games - Growing up, I went to a lot of local fairs and the Great New York State Fair out in Syracuse every summer. At every fair, there is a bunch of different games. Where I work we have nine games and I know how to work and win each one. My “game sweet game’ is Machine Gun Alley (shoot all the red off the star you get ANY prize), and I consider myself to be the Princess of Guns, don’t believe me, ask my coworkers and bosses. We also have Crazy Ball (it’s the craziest game in the midway), Block Buster, Diggers, Derby (everyone’s favorite family racing game), Whac-A-Mole, Darts, Ring-A-Bottle (ring on any bottle makes you a winner), and the good ole Striker. Working a carnival game isn’t all fun and games (no pun intended.) Sometimes, I will get customers that are super friendly and are extremely understanding of the games, then I will get customers that are the complete opposite and get upset at me for losing.

6.) The Smells - Nothing makes me happier than the smell of greasy, sugary, deep fried carnival food. My favorites are the smell of freshly made cotton candy, candy apples, and deep fried pickles. "As a child, my favorite was the smell of cotton candy and popcorn mixed together while I ate a candy apple," - MB, a fellow coworker of mine told me when I ask him his favorite thing about going to carnivals as a kid. Foods aren't the only you smell at carnivals. When working at carnivals, you get to smell the gas from the generator all day, the smell of sweating children (and, no, I don't just randomly smell children,) the smell of puke coming from the ride closest to your game and trust me after working the rides the smell of puke when cleaning off your ride isn't full of rainbows and sunshine either.

7.) The Rides - Tall and short, slow and fast, loud and quiet, every fair has their own types of rides that fall in each their own category. I absolutely love watching all the kids riding the rides while I’m at work, there’s just something about watching kids enjoying their summer and having the times of their lives on the rides or it’s because I see myself as a young child in all of them. Running from ride to ride without taking any breaks and seeing how many rides I could go on before I got sick. You wait in line for what feels like hours sometimes, but once you get on the ride it is a short matter of time where you feel alive, full of adrenaline, or in my case full of uncontrollable laughter and motion sickness. It’s the crazy trust that you put into the carnies that put the rides together every weekend, and just praying that nothing goes completely wrong while you are on the ride.

8.) The Music - I have always had a big thing for music, whether it was listening to it, singing to it, playing it in band, or just going to music class and learning basically everything about music. I was in the school band my sixth and seventh grade years and then rejoined my senior year, and was apart of the schools chorus my sixth and seventh grade years as well. Music was like my getaway from everything stressful in my life. Each fair I get to travel to has their own type of music that they will play all day or all night long. Just last year we travel to this place called West Winfield, and I can remember to this day that the carnival was in the middle of nowhere and all the played was old school country folk like music. Don't get me wrong, I seriously love country music but I couldn't help how funny it was to be sitting at work listening to old country music. A few weeks ago, we traveled to a small town called Flloyd, and they would play the newer country music all day long off from a radio and speakers all around the field but once it go around 6pm they would have a band come in and they would play a bunch of rock music. Each carnival is different and will play different types of music, so I love traveling to each carnival and hearing all the different types of music.

9.) The Food - I love food, but who doesn't? I may not look it but I really am a fat kid. I get excited when I see food, especially chicken nuggets and anything fried. Going to a bunch of carnivals every weekend, I get to taste a different variety of foods. My favorites are cheesy fries, a big juicy greasy cheeseburger, deep fried Oreos and pickles, and frozen chocolate bananas. The New York State Fair is the one place where I allow myself to ruin my healthy eating habits and go crazy, and when I say go crazy, I go crazy. From starting at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que and getting a large pulled pork sandwich, to hitting up every ice cream and deep fried food stand as possible. As a child, I was ALWAYS asking my parents for money to buy candy apples. It’s honestly probably the worst food you could eat in your entire life but there’s just something about carnival food that makes me happy.

10.) Why We Love Being A Carnie - I asked a few of my fellow co-workers to tell me what they love about being a carnie/carny and I was somewhat surprised by what everyone said. Due to privacy issues, I ended up using their nicknames from at work.

Margaret: "I love being a carnie because I get to interact with different kinds of people and being able to have fun while being at work."

Robbie Kardashian: "I love being a carnie because of the free fireworks, traveling around the areas to new places, if we're lucky meeting nice new people, hanging out with the work family, and making children happy when they win my game."

Beyonce's Twin: " People watching is seriously the best part of coming to work. In order to work for us you must be a people watcher."

Sasha: "Being able to work somewhere where the environment is about having fun. People are spending with their friends and families and it's a positive environment generally. Plus, I got my second family at work."

Marsha: "Because of all the strange people that come and make me laugh and hearing random stories about my game, seeing the smiles of little kids when you give them their prizes."

Striker: "It's fun, we get to work outside, customers are nice, I get to meet new people and make new friends! The people I work with, it's like a big family!"

Banana: "I like working with everyone, and seeing all the smiles on the kids faces when they win my game."

Crystal: "I like being a carnie because we are own big happy weird family. Our bosses are by far amazing. I get to see some pretty weird people every weekend, and I love it when Striker pulls his daily pranks."

Next time you go to the New York State Fair, or any local carnival, remember to not judge a book by its cover and give us carnies a break. We travel a lot and give up a lot of time out of our weeks to make sure YOU have the time of your lives! Also remember to eat as much sugary, greasy, deep fried food as possible and have a memorable time.

Love Yours Truly,

The Princess of Guns