When I first joined a traveling carnival, I was still living in Texas and got hooked up with a job with some friends at the Texas State Fair, also known as The Fat Stock Show. I worked between a food joint and a game booth. Then, a situation came about where I hooked up with some new and different friends. We left there, traveled through Louisiana where we got stranded in Covington where our RV broke down. The people there in Covington were so nice. They put us up in a motel, helped us get food through several local businesses while we were there, and helped us get our RV repaired. Then we were on our way again, traveling through Alabama, Georgia, and into Florida. There we hooked up with another carnival. I started out working in a ticket booth. Then moved on to a couple food joints. People who didn't have campers to live in, stayed in trailers that were converted to mini apartments, about five or six apartments per trailer. Each apartment was divided only by a plywood partition. It wasn't the best, but it was a place to lay our heads. They would park the trailers as close to the bathroom and shower facilities as possible. Sometimes it was a close walk, other times, it was a bit of walk. At some spots, would rent motel rooms just to have some peace from the rest of the carnies on to enjoy some rate amenities such as having the bathroom with a bathtub right there, and maybe a pool to enjoy when we weren't working. At the end of each carnival spot, the women would clean up their joints, game and food, and some women who ran the rides would help clean up the food joints and get them ready to travel. Once all us women were done and ready to move out, we would gather in front of the owners RV and wait to get our checks.
Us women got paid our checks, while the men wouldn't. If they needed or wanted money, they would ask for a draw for how ever much they wanted, and the owner would give them the money.
Once we women got paid, we would split up into groups and ride with those who had campers and RVs. That's how we traveled. The men would travel with the rides, game booths, and food joints.
The bunk houses, our housing trailers, would move out the morning of our last day at a spot, so those of us who lived in them had to make sure we had things tied down and gathered everything we would need til we got to our next spot.
We women were most of the time, the first to leave a spot and head to the next. We would travel all night, stopping occasionally when we had to use the bathroom. We would pull off the highway, pile out of the RV and surround each other as we took turns using the bathroom outside. It was called: popping a squat. We had toilet paper and a trash bag. When we were finished doing our business, we would hand over the toilet paper and trash bag to the next one in line.
It fun traveling and hard work too. But it was more for those who didn't have families, single people in other words. Now get me wrong, there were families who lived there lives on the carnival, but after experiencing what I did, that was no life for any family. The kids didn't have proper schooling and were around all the stuff that they be at such young ages. There were drugs, homemade tattoos, and worst of all, the lot lizards or carny hoes. I enjoyed it for the most part, but once I became pregnant, it was time to get out. And getting out is not as easy as getting in. To get out, you have to work out a plan were anyone who comes looking for you won't find you. Managed to do it and get out. It was a very interesting life experience, worth talking about. But I guarantee, I'll never do it again.