LLPOH’s SHORT Story #3

This is a story about a young family, and takes place in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, in the South-western US (primarily Texas/Oklahoma and Louisiana). This family consists of a young man and his wife, and a small child. The family work and travel with a carnival, and move each week to a new location. The small boy attended a new school each week from first grade through third grade. The exact number of different schools is not known, but best guess is around one hundred. Sometimes he was placed in the appropriate grade, but as often as not he was placed in a class wherever there was a desk – perhaps it was in third grade, or sixth, or first. This was, after all, the southwest, and they were, after all, carnies, and the schools would have preferred he was not there at all. The boy was resilient, and thrived, and knew no other life.

http://decker.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/carnival_1.jpg

The young woman is a daughter of the Depression. She grew up in Missouri, and her very large family was from the lower-middle class. The family was hit hard by the Depression, but not quite so hard as some. Her father did whatever necessary to see that the family survived. How she came to meet and marry the young man has never been well understood, and on the surface they were poorly matched. The young woman was a gentle, kind soul, and the young man was from a vastly different background, and he was …. difficult.
The young man was a Dustbowl Okie. He was born into severe poverty, into a large and dysfunctional family. He left school at third grade, and began full-time work to survive – farming was his primary job. At some point during his youth he began working and travelling with carnivals. His life was very difficult. Somehow, after some very hard years, he met and married the young woman.
The story now jumps to when the young boy was five. The family owned/operated several stalls on the carnival – three game venues and a Fun House (effectively a large semi-trailer that had been converted into a House of Horrors), and the young man also rode an Indian motorcycle on the vertical walls of the Motordrome. The young boy did his first work at this time – he was the main ticket salesman at the Fun House. Unusually, the boy was perhaps a bigger draw card than the Fun House itself, for the boy was able to sell tickets and make change for any combination of bills and coins and customers. This talent drew a great many customers who tested the boy’s skills – some out of curiosity, but a fair number hoping to perhaps cheat the boy – something they never achieved. The boy also had some duties at the game stalls. His favourite duty, however, involved the Fun House. In the Fun House, where two aisles adjoined, an ankle high hole had been cut in the dividing wall. This area was pitch-black. The boy would sneak in the back way, and reach through the hole and grab the young ladies’ legs as they walked past. The ladies reacted as you might imagine – screaming/stomping/ and stampeding their way through the rest of the Fun House. Some even wet themselves. The boy thought this was great fun. So did the girls’ companions.
The main point of this story involves the three games the family owned and ran. These three games were the Bear Pitch (where customers would toss coins into plates sitting upon the heads of stuffed bears in hope of winning a bear), the Fish Toss (where customers would toss ping pong balls into small fish bowls in hope of winning a goldfish) and the Coin Roll (where the customer would roll coins down a ramp in hope of winning more coins). The young man developed these games personally, and paid the owner of the carnival weekly rental for space, plus a percentage of the gross (how this was calculated is uncertain, as carnies were notoriously unreliable). The young man was, therefore, a small business owner.
The young man had a particular genius – he was able to discern, unfailingly, what motivates people. The games he developed reflect this ability. The Bear Pitch was targeted to families, and to young couples. The young man decided that he was not in the game business – he decided he was in the business of selling Teddy Bears. And sell them he did – literally by the thousands. He designed his game such that anyone throwing enough nickels would “win” a bear. To win a bear, on average, might take $5 worth of nickels. Some people would win a bear with the first nickel, and some would take $10 worth of nickels to win a bear. But EVERYONE would win a bear. If anyone went too long without “winning” a bear, the young man would give them one. People lined up around this game ten deep. Everyone would win a bear – a large bear too big for a small child to carry. The young man sold a semi-truck load of bears each week – he would bring a semi-load of bears to each new town. Every family and couple who came to the carnival would leave carrying one or more of his bears. He was a great teddy bear salesman.
The Fish Toss was targeted to children. A stack of hundreds and hundreds of small fish bowls, filled with colored water – blue/green/gold – and a single goldfish was placed in the middle of the game tent. People would buy ping pong balls to toss at the bowls – throw a ping pong ball into the bowl, and win the fish. Children loved the game. It required no skill. Throw enough ping pong balls – sometimes one, sometimes twenty – and you would get a fish. Everyone could win a fish – and everyone did. The young man realized he was in the goldfish selling business, and he sold goldfish by the thousands (please do not ask about the goldfish survival rates – I doubt they were good. Never mind.). So in addition to all families leaving the carnival with his bears, they also left with his fish – no exceptions. They left very, very happy.
The Coin Roll was targeted at the final demographic group – young men without dates. The young men would roll coins down a ramp, and attempt to get the coins to land within a defined square without touching the lines. It was pure gambling. If you were successful, you made many times the value of the coin. How the young man figured out how large to make the squares, I do not know, but he did. It is an exercise I undertook in graduate school probability and statistics, but the young man had no such skills. This game kept the young men occupied, and they seemed happy enough to keep the game running steadily.
So the young man had a thriving small business, and was making good money. He sold many, many bears and goldfish at good margins, and made some nice side money on the Fun House, the Coin Roll, and his work in the Motordrome. He was fulfilling his customer’s needs. He had identified every demographic group, and gave them something they all wanted, and they were happy. The owner of the carnival was happy – more people were attending the carnivals than ever before. It seemed it was a recipe for success! Unfortunately, it was a very flawed business model, and ended in tears for the young man and his family.
The problem was that while the young man was thriving, the other games on the carnival were dying. The other games were rigged – they had no intention of giving anything away. Their business model was to cheat the customer, take their money, and move on. The honest nature of the young man’s games meant that no one would play the rigged games. After all, customers are not stupid – they prefer to get something for their money. So there was an uprising among the other game owners. They did not want to compete, and change their games – they wanted to continue to steal their customer’s money. They did not believe in the business model that fair games would result in more and happier customers. The believed that the old model – come for a week, take all you can without giving anything in return, and moving on – was the appropriate model. The other game owners demanded the carnival owner no longer allow the young man and his family to be part of the carnival. The owner resisted, but in the end caved in to their demands, and the young man and his family lost their business and their investments. What happened next is for another story.
So what happened here? The young man put together an honest business supplying a product that his customers wanted, and the customer was happy. He failed to fully understand the industry he was in. The industry was largely unionized – but he did not know it. The “union” did not want real competition, but rather wanted the status quo. They wanted something for nothing, and wanted to continue to steal from their customers indefinitely, and provide nothing in return. The carnival owner realized the young man had a valuable and promising business model, and understood that the customers were responding to the new model with enthusiasm. But in the end, the carnival owner was unable to bring himself to challenge the union. The honest, hard-working young man was in the end crushed by the dishonest union. Carnivals have declined markedly over the years, and have never re-invented the old model. Perhaps they missed their chance.
I have learned much from this story. From this story, there is the warning that aspiring business owners must see the pitfalls of not understanding their industry – many times it is much more complex than it appears. To be successful, business owners must fully understand their industry.
The union of stall holders very much resembles every other union that I have known. They are concerned with protecting the old ways, at the expense of the new. They wish to receive something for nothing, and long-term consequences be damned. They are prepared to crush anyone who challenges the status quo. Those of you who posted about the experience of putting out too much work as memebres of a union, and then having the pressure of the union applied as a result understand clearly how this works.
The carnival owner is similar to management that cave in to demands, but mostly to me he resembles the governments which for so long have rolled over for the public servants, and have allowed the public service unions to steal from the public. At least when private companies cave in, the penalty is (generally) only born by the shareholders. When the carnival owner rolled over, he allowed the carnival union to continue to steal from the public at large and in the end the carnivals have declined almost to the point of disappearing entirely.
I do not believe that the young man ever fully understood what had occurred, as he had limited education and experience. To him, he had done the right things, and was punished nonetheless. It added to the bitterness of his life, although he moved on to other things. Perhaps others can learn from his experience. I know I have.