Carnies make own family

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, September 30, 2004

Darrell Cox once lived in what he calls the “real world.” That was a long time ago.

He had settled down in Eureka, Calif. He had a wife and family. He pushed a mop for a janitorial service. He did that for 11 years, until bad habits got in the way.

At 52, Cox is minus hearth and home. He’s missing some teeth. He has friends, though. They call him “Derby,” a nod to a beat-up hat he picked up at a truck stop and always wears. And for 17 years, he’s had steady work.

Cox is a carny.

His employer, Davis Amusement Cascadia, rolled its carnival rides onto Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church grounds this week for the Everett Sausage Festival. A fund-raiser for Immaculate Conception/Our Lady of Perpetual Help School, the festival starts its three-day run today.

A year ago, I wrote about an Everett couple who had been festival volunteers for 26 years. On my way to meet them, I walked right past the netherworld of the carnival. It was as if those people didn’t exist.

They do exist, people like Cox, or 43-year-old Army veteran Paul Robinson and his girlfriend Jocelyn Mosley, 25. There’s Felicia Webb, a “ride jock” on the Moon Raker. She’s traveling with her 14-year-old son, Tyler Webb, who said he’s being home-schooled.

Doug Norton, a tattooed 31-year-old, runs the Tilt A Whirl. He quit school in Oregon at age 15. Someplace, he has an ex-wife and two kids. Finishing his first carnival season, Norton said “it’s fun,” although he recently cleaned up “seven times in one day” after people got sick on the rides.

Penny Nelson is in her 27th year on the circuit. She runs the Fry Shack and keeps her co-workers fed. Wednesday, she made French toast for the carnies.

“It gets under your skin, it really does,” said Nelson, 42. She once was a food manager at the Yakima SunDome but prefers the freedom of the road. “You’re not cooped up,” she said.

Mike Davis, a manager with Oregon-based Davis Amusement, said longevity on the job is an exception. Of more than 150 workers at the peak of his season, about a dozen have been with him for a decade.

“It’s high turnover,” Davis said.

Qualifications are minimal. The itinerant workers need to be at least 18, have identification and pass a background check. They make $300 to $600 a week. For Cox, it’s $450.

“I get paid every Monday,” said Cox, whose home is a mobile bunkhouse. In a space the size of a closet, Cox has a bunk, a TV, a small generator and not much else. He spends winters in Portland, Ore., where he works maintaining the rides.

As winter nears, Robinson and Mosley get by as Salvation Army bell ringers.

Carnival workers and rides are subject to regulation. In Everett, a city ordinance requires a list of carnival workers to accompany the permit application.

“That list is sent to the police department,” said Sharon Marks, Everett’s clerk. “Based on that, certain individuals may not be allowed.” The ordinance bans workers convicted of a felony “or a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude,” Marks said.

Everett Police Sgt. Boyd Bryant said it’s basically a check for arrest warrants rather than full background checks.

Rides go through two types of inspections, said Valerie Valencia, electrical licensing supervisor with the state Department of Labor and Industries. State-certified inspectors go over each ride annually. Electrical inspections are done at each setup.

“There’s nothing in the law about training for carnival workers,” she said.

In 1980, the movie “Carny” told the story of seedy lives behind the midway. The appeal was its star, Robbie Robertson, lead guitarist for The Band. He was coming off the success of “The Last Waltz,” a documentary on the music group, and lent “Carny” his gritty glamour.

I didn’t see a bit of glamour in the lives of real carnies. I did see a kind of family. Some are ragtag drifters who couldn’t make it anywhere else. But they do a job.

“We provide entertainment and fun,” said Robinson, who’s been on the road eight years. “We’re family. For the people who stay, that’s the reason.”

Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com.