My Crazy Summer of "73"

I( wrote this many years ago, and since then my writing skills have improved measurably. One day I will rewrite it and fix the errors, but for now that is the least of my concerns.)

by Chuck Ness

Everyone has memories they cherish from times when they were growing up. I have many memories, but none of them are as memorable as the ones I have of the Summer of “73”. That Summer holds some of the most cherished memories of my teen years. Yet it also includes memories of doing things that would lead to more bad behavior in my life. It was a time in my life when I was between still being a boy, and wanted so desperately to be a man. I did some stupid things that Summer. The overall culture of a carnival life is one of drugs alcohol and sex. While I did do some drugs, and yes I engaged in some sex, most of what happened with me that Summer was tame in comparison to what it could have been like if it were not for a certain woman named Mary, who treated me like the son she never had.

In a screwed up family with eight children I was the youngest. Raising eight children by a man who went to prison wasn't an easy task. The eldest pretty much raised the younger ones, because Mom had to work. While she did remarry, our stepfather would often times drink and gamble his paycheck away before he even got home on payday. I was seven when my father went to prison, and by the time I was sixteen in 1973, I was the only one still living at home. I was to the point in my head, that the last thing I wanted to do was attend any more classes. When Mom found out I dropped out, she was mad, but she was also tired of fighting.

So she took me down to the Army recruiting center to see if they would sign me up. There was no way they were signing up some scrawny kid who barely turned 16 a few months earlier. So my Mom gave me the ultimatum. I was told to either get a job or go back to school.

I was in luck, because the father of the girl I was dating owned a lumber yard, "Anderson Lumber." So I started working for Arne Anderson. Most of it was manual labor, but I did have a chance to learn how to operate a forklift. It was less than a Month later that me and his daughTer, Dawn, broke up. The next day I went to work and I was handed a paycheck and told I was fired. There are some fairly interesting aspects to that whole situation that I may write about some day, but for now I'll leave it at that.

Shortly after being fired, I met a girl named Mandy who's family had come up from Southern Minnesota to spend the week with her cousin's family, which lived next door. Her aunt was getting married, so I ended up being invited to the wedding, which allowed us to get better acquainted. We hung out all week and really got to like each other. Turns out her father took a liking to me.

After the wedding, as they were getting ready to head home, her father asked if I was interested in a job for the Summer, working on his farm. He even told me I could stay with them. I accepted the offer, and was told he would come and pick me up in a few weeks. A few days later, My brother got me a job working on the carnival with him.

When the carnival ended, and I helping them pack things up, I figured to be heading South in about week to work on the farm. That's when the owner of the game I worked on, Mary Lou Zeicheck, approached me and told me she liked the way I worked. She then asked if I would like to travel with them. There I was, a 16 year old boy with a choice to either go down South and work on a farm for the Summer, or traveling around the country working on a carnival. It took a whole 5 seconds for me to consider my choices, when I blurted out, “You betcha”. I still had that strong Midwest accent that the movie Fargo made fun of. Mary told me that I would need my Mom's approval and that she would have sign legal custody of me over to her. The reason was the Carnival was heading to Canada, so crossing an international border meant paperwork.

I remember approaching my Mom with the idea, thinking there is no way she would sign legal custody of me over to a total stranger. After all, carnivals had a bad reputation, and signing the papers meant that I would be legally Mary's child. At the time I figured my best bet was spending the Summer working on the farm for Mandy's father. You can imagine my surprise, my Mom couldn't wait to sign the papers for Lou and Mary Lou Zeicheck to gain custody of me. The next few days was a whirlwind as my Mom packed my bags, put me in the car, drove me to the carnival, and kissed me goodbye. I was going to spend the Summer traveling around Canada and the USA as a Barker for a game called the, “Crazy Ball”.

Mind you, I really liked Mandy, and I actually had thoughts of being a farmer. After all, she was an only child. Who knows, I may have ended up marrying her one day and running the farm. Yet as I also remember thinking that really liked Dawn. She too was an only child. Who knows, maybe I would have married her and ended up running her fathers lumber yard one day. Let's be honest, at 16, what did I know about girls anyway. One thing I know I was sure of back then. I wanted to see the World, and I wasn't going to do that working on a farm or on a lumber yard in the heat of the Summer. Looking back, I can honestly say that even if I had a crystal ball to see what the next ten years had in store for me, I most likely would have made the same decision. After all, with Christ being the farthest thing from my mind at that age, many images of my future would have cemented my desire to keep on going down the path most traveled. Years later, I do wish I had stayed in school, but I also thank God that HE protected me in all my way word travels.

As I look back, it was a time in my life when I went farther and seen more than many do in a life time. I would travel throughout Canada, down through Montana and into the heart of the Western and Southern States. I saw cities I only read about, like Thunder Bay Ontario and Saskatoon Saskatchewan in Canada. Oklahoma City, Kansas City Kansas, Tupelo Mississippi, and Birmingham Alabama. I even worked the fair in Bozeman Montana, where I was able to take a 20 mile ride ride to see my grandparents in Gallatin Gateway. Like Bozeman in Montana, there were other small towns we made it to. Most of them I never heard of before, and have since forgotten the names of. I met many different people that Summer, and I even thought I fell in love a few times with some local gals I met. Amazing how easily it is to think you're in love.

Every place I went has it's own memories, some I can recall with fondness, others with sadness, and some with fear of what may come next. All this while I learned what it's like to live the life of a Carney. However, the biggest memory that has stuck with me all these years later, wasn't the games I ran, or the big cities I saw, not the girls I met along the way, nor the drugs I did with the older boys. No, the memories that linger all these years later, are the ones about a crabby middle aged woman who did her best to put some semblance of order and normality into a teen boy who desperately needed direction.

The Carnival was called the Thomas Shows, and it was based out of Southern Florida. Every Summer they made a circuit around the United States and Canada. They mainly played fairs at small towns, but they also joined other carnivals in large cities for their State fairs. All in all, that Summer I was introduced to a cornucopia of American culture that broadened my understanding of how vast and diverse this country is.

Carnival life was a unique experience. There were many down days when all I had to do to was sit around listening to all the older boys and men talk about their exploits. Sometimes I would wonder off the fairgrounds with someone older and take a tour of the town. However, there were those towns where we were told by the local Sheriffs that if any carnival worker so much as spit on the ground we would be arrested. They got my attention, so I stayed on the fairgrounds. However, I was real disappointed when one of those towns was Tupelo Mississippi. On our way there. I had ideas of visiting the place Elvis was born. Mind you, having four older sisters meant I grew up really liking him. Unfortunately, too many carnival workers in the past gave all Carnies a bad name. So I played it safe and stayed on the fairgrounds.

Mary was a good woman who owned 10 different games. The one I worked for was called the “Crazy Ball”. She expected everyone to work hard, be polite and courteous with people, and to be very honest. As I would learn, stealing money from the games was a big problem with Carneys. Thus the high turnover of workers. Now as good as Mary was, she could not keep tabs on all her boys, as she called us. There were about 15 of us that worked her games. Most were in their 20's, a couple of men in their 30's, a few were my brothers age at 19. I was the youngest at 16. I was the youngest of eight children all of which loved to remind me that I was the youngest. Now I was the youngest employee of the carnival, something everyone loved to remind me of. Amazing how the more things can change, the more they can stay the same.

Mary took a keen liking to me and seemed to go out of her way to protect me. She made sure I took showers often, and if my cloths didn't look right, she would purchase new ones for me. She refused to let her boys look like the ride jockeys. Yet she was especially strict on my appearance. As much as she wanted to be, she was less successful with the older guys, than she was with me. However, as long as the older guys worked hard and were honest she put up with them. As for me, she took more interest in the hopes she could mold me into the type of respectful decent young man she expected all men to be. Mary was old school, and she tried her best to keep the hippy movement away from her charges.

Now Lou and Mary never had a son, and since I was the youngest she favored me. So much so that I felt like she treated me at times like I was her own son, which legally I was. At least for the Summer. The other workers actually kept their distance from me for some time, out of fear I would get them in trouble for things. I remember it bothering me at first, but after a few cities they began to realize I was cool. In time some of the older guys even began treating me like a little brother in how they watched out for me and even shared their wisdom on life. When your 16, a 22 year old can sound like he's wise. LOL.

We all got paid on a weekly basis, except for me. She took me aside and told me she would give me enough for what I needed, but the rest she saved to give me at the end of the Summer. Late at night after the carnival closed, her husband, Lou, ran a casino type of game tent that was only for the carnival workers. It was a way to keep the workers from going into town and getting into trouble. Mary Lou made sure that I was not allowed in there. There were some guys who were my age older that got in, but they didn't work for her. Most of them worked for the guy who owned the rides. Lou was less caring about his employees, even if she had a lot of pull over matters concerning the carnival as a whole. She especially wanted to be sure that I was kept away from the drinking and gambling. I realize now, that she must have felt a strong sense of responsibility since she was my legal guardian. She would often repeat the line,

“Your different from the rest of these boys. I've never had
a son, and by golly I am not going to let anything happen you.”

Then she would smile and just walk away. She was a real darling, but she had a hard cold side to her also. If you crossed her, you knew you were in deep trouble.

One time an older guy in his 30's was caught stealing. The guy had his wife and two children with him, but it didn't matter to her. I remember her cussing him out in her trailer home. She was so loud that I swear the whole county must have heard her wrath. He crossed her by stealing, and in the carnival life that is an unforgivable sin. The penalty is immediate release with nothing but your belongings, but not before everything you own is gone through. Even if the money found was yours, you lost it. They left town with him and his wife and kids standing in an empty parking lot. Broke, and no where to go. I often times wonder what ever happened to them, yet it was his fault, he knew the rules.

It was mid September when the last stop of the circuit took place in Birmingham Alabama. The day after we tore everything down and had it all packed up, Mary Lou took a couple of us to get our hair cut and purchased some new cloths for us. We all had lunch and then she took us to the bus stop, where she gave me an envelope of the money she held back for me. She gave us all hugs, but she hugged me last, with tears in her eyes. Not a lot, but enough for me to know she was going to miss me. I tried to be strong, but I too had teary eyes, because Mary Lou was like a Mother to me especially, since I was by far the youngest of the guys who worked for her that Summer.

On the 1100 mile bus ride home to Duluth, I had a Summer of memories to pass the time by. It was the Summer of my life that I could probably fill a couple of books with. As a disclaimer, I must admit that there were some things I did that, if she knew, Mary might have sent me home early because of. Or maybe she would have fired some of the older guys working for her who corrupted me. I did some growing up grow up that Summer, and so I was no longer the naive teen she hired a few Months earlier. Looking back at that Summer, I remember many things, but nothing surpasses the memory I have of a grumpy middle aged woman who had me as a son, in my crazy Summer of “73”.