At the end of the Coffeyville Fair and Rodeo one year the PA system had an announcement looking for some help to tar down the rides. Since I had never done it before I thought,why not? When the fair closed we gathered at the office where we were divided into crews to tear down one ride each. They wanted the rides to be torn down and loaded in 2-3 hours so the larger crews tore down the ferris wheel and larger rides.
I was on a three man crew tearing down a simple slide. The light fixtures had to come off first and proved to be the most difficult part of the job. The lights were designed to not be moved or broken and worked as advertised. After that, taking the plastic panels proved much easier. The remaining metal supports came down and we waited a few minutes for the truck to load some other rides since ours had to go in last.
After three hours we went to the office to get paid. They had never mentioned how much we were going to get paid and most of us just wanted to tear down a carnival ride. A few were disappointed to get our whopping twenty-four dollars for three hours of work. I was happy to get most of the money I spent that evening. It was something I was glad to do once, but would not do again.
Footyfried 