Weekend at Carnie's

Last winter Netflix and Amazon Prime wells ran dry. My husband and I found and binged "Carnivale" as we waited for some of our other regular shows to be released. While the show was slow to start, I did enjoy it. I was taken by the dedication to produce a show set in a 1930s era traveling circus. The dirt, the hard work, the cars, and the costumes. It really caught my attention. In it, the performers who were big draws got to sleep in their own wagons or tents while the carnies slept under the trucks. Not horribly glamorous traveling with the big top. Guess what? Modern carnies and vendors don't have it much better.

Thankfully, there weren't any scary Gary Busey clowns.

I had the chance to travel to a belly dance festival in Seattle, Washington earlier this month. My husband and I offered to help our troupe's costumer manage her booth at the event. She would have three tents. No one else I saw had a spot that big. Our job was simple: set up, sell, and tear down. In return, we'd get transportation, food, and some nifty additions to our own belly dance gear. Sounds great right? Well in a lot of ways it was, but it's definitely not a glamorous life.

Saying it was glamorous is like saying a honey badger is cuddly. No really Mr. Snake, the honey badger just wants a hug...

Let's consider sleeping arrangements first. The venue did not have a nearby RV lot or campground. Venders either spent the night in their tents on the lot or pumped up an air mattress and stayed in their travel vehicle/trailer, or packed up their gear and stayed off site only to return and set back up again for day two. We pumped up air mattresses and stayed inside the tent of wares on the site. It was humid. It was a public park. It didn't have security the first night. It didn't have a bathroom available between about 10pm and 8am. It had crows that didn't believe in sleeping in. I did not know these things ahead of time.

Judgy Goat thinks you should ask more questions next time. Screw you, Judgy Goat.

I'm no sttranger to sleeping outdoors in a tent. That was fine. I understand that as a vendor, you want to keep overhead low. Staying at a hotel, even a cheap one, for two nights would eat profits. It also would mean trusting your merchandise to be all right over night even though the security guard decided not to show the first night and couldn't be replaced at short notice. It also meant that early the next morning, you had to move all your personal gear out and set up the tent for sales, hopefully before being beseiged by crowds of shoppers. We got the air mattresses and luggage out, but we weren't totally set up before sales started.

You got your bra on before the crowds showed up. Well done.

Not having a security guard presented a problem to those vendors who didn't stay with their gear. It meant that passersby could peek into the tents during the night without problems. In fact, just as we were settling in our first night, I heard giggling and talking. We had just put heads on pillows for a much deserved sleep when three young adults came by. My husband gallantly threw aside the tent flap and greeted them with a loud, "How ya doin'?" They were appropriately flustered and rattled. Then we thought they had moved along. However, we heard giggling again a short time later and smelled the ever unmistakeable stench of marijuana. We figured out which tent it was coming from, and we knew that vendor was not staying on site. So we began talking loudly enough about the situation that whoever was in that tent heard us, stopped talking, and eventually moved along. About 3am there was another disturbance where someone tossed back a tent flap and discovered two of the other vendors who were sleeping with their merchandise. The discovery scared the crap out of all involved. Not exactly a restful evening. It did not help moods or tempers the next day, yet we managed to put in another hot and humid and hard ass day on about 3-4 hours of highly interrupted sleep while still managing to be nice to customers.

Of course I'm in a good mood. Just check out my winning smile. 

The lack of bathroom was a bit more troublesome, though. We were apparently supposed to have access to a key to use one of the bathrooms of the community center that was on site. Nopers. Good thing I peed before we left the restaurant after our late dinner. We had to brush teeth and spit without sinks rather like camping actually. In the morning though, I was not about to go strolling down the block or block and half to the grocery store to relieve my overfull bladder. Urgent need requires urgent solutions. Cue the shadowy shrubbery. It also meant we could not shower nor wash our faces at night or in the morning. Luckily, our vendor friend planned ahead and bought some unscented baby wipes. Those washed my face that first night and my pits the next morning. Fortunately, the next night someone had a key so we could avoid the shadowy shrubbery, but still no showers. It was hot during the day. It was also humid. We were grimey and ripe after working 12 hour days and sleeping in that tent. No deoderant or baby wipe was going to change that less than fresh feeling, but at least it held the body odor in check.

Best not stand downwind, bro.

Compounding the interruptions of sleep were Charlie and his gang. Charlie is the name given to a crow at the park who repeatedly cawed his alarms from about 530am onward. Of course, it wasn't just one crow, but rather all crows became  Charlie who we cussed out and shook fists at. Whenever we heard the crow yell, we sharply yelled back at Charlie. All crows were Charlie and Charlie was an asshole. By the end of tear down, we were so fatigued and in need of sleep. But because the park officially closed the event at 730pm, we had to drive two hours to a KOA that had open bathrooms, showers, and was next to a highway. A really loud highway. Apparently people who drive on highways in Washington in the wee hours do not believe in mufflers.

Hey, at least you had a real shower and slept in a real bed there, Missy.

Yet another night of interrupted sleep on an air matress in a tent. However, we did get a much needed shower the next morning although my toes still needed a good scrubbing when I got home. You see, it rained that morning at the KOA--a light, steady, slightly chilly rain. Consequently, we got rinsed off just in time to get dirty again.

Yup. That's right. Cleaned off one layer of dirt just in time for a new layer that stayed on us for 12 hours in a truck on the way home.

I don't share this tale to whine or complain or draw your pity. I share it because it offers a lot of perspective on the people you see selling items at festivals and carnivals. If they have merchandise in an EZ Up tent, chances are that they slept there that night. Chances are good they didn't sleep well nor did they have a chance to attend to proper hygiene ettiquette. They're likely tired and overworked, and hungry. Did I forget that part? We had some fruit and meat/cheese/crackers in a cooler at the tent, but the crowds are dizzying, which means you don't really get  a chance to eat until many hours later. A strawberry here and there was not enough to sustain us through the heat and high traffic to the booth. About 3p the first day I finally scampered off to get us gyros from the food truck. We took turns eating. Same thing happened the next day. Next time you're at a festival, I hope you think about these words when you interact with the vendors. If they're friendly and helpful, appreciate it. If they're less than friendly or even a little testy and dirty, cut them some slack. It's not an easy gig.