Re: Heard From An Old ASAer Today

["Bob La Londe" <none@xxxxxxxxxx>]

"Jim Davis"  wrote in message
news:4b5d7223-eae7-4fab-87b4-183332987816@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On Friday, October 19, 2018 at 4:17:28 PM UTC-4, Bob La Londe wrote:
>
>
> I was to the Bahamas when I was about 3 years old.  I've got some
> interesting memories.
>
> Bumming around the docks with my mom talking to fishermen.
>
> Looking off the Queen's tower and wanting to play with all the toy cars
> and toy houses in the neighborhood below.
>
> Playing on a log with another kid pretending it was our ship and getting
> 3 stitches in my forehead when he wanted me to get off his ship and he
> busted me in the head with a rock.
>
> Scalded my arm with hot coffee.
>
> Overall it was an adventure.  Oh, and we weren't "tourists" persay.  We
> were there with the carnival working.
>
> I'd like to look off the Queen's tower again with an adult perspective.
> Most of the rest of that adventure I see no need to duplicate.  LOL.

Carnival?   What Carnival? Sounds interesting?

Care to expand on that?

***************  Rides & Games.  Just like carnivals here in the US.  Well
maybe a little more crooked back in 1969

I also spent two seasons on the road with the carnival here in the US in the
mid 1980s before I went back to college.  I worked the carnival all season
and then I was a press operator in a cotton gin in the winter time for a
couple years.  To be honest most of my time with the carnival as an adult
was just about survival.  I've got a few stories, but they are mostly not
pleasant ones.  I did have a boss give me an 1969 Thunderbird with the 429
interceptor engine when he couldn't afford to pay me.  Another gave me a
nice 500 Mossberg 12ga when he came up a little short when it was time to
settle up.  Carnival life is a constant hustle to survive.  One lady who was
a traveling companion found herself on the street when I found a needle in
the bathroom.  We weren't that kind of companions so I wasn't worried about
catching anything.  We just traveled together for a while and saved on
expenses.  I taught her how to hustle a mark and use her assets to the best
ability when she first joined up.  Pretty seedy lifestyle.  Pretty hard to
avoid meth users and abusers.  Probably more on a carnival lot than any
other place I've been.  Even slum streets of a big city.  I remember running
some locals off our lot a couple hours after closing one night in Las Vegas.
When they left I went back to sleep, but some other guys followed them.  The
next day I heard one of the followers bragging how they think they broke one
of their backs later.  Not a life style or way to survive I would recommend
to anybody.