Tags
career opportunities, carnies, carnivals, carny, Charles Bukowski, Code of the Carnies, creepy subcultures, Hey Rube!, meth, methamphetamine, Rohypnol, roofies, serial killers, the midway, traveling folk, William Faulkner, you got a real purty mouth
Originally Posted September 15, 2010
By Smaktakula
There are those unique individuals who dread the notion of riding a desk until retirement, who long to work not in a stuffy cubicle, but under God’s own sky, and who chafe against the constricting mores of traditional society. For those willing to do whatever it takes to find it, there is still a place for the truly free man among the traveling folk of the carnival.
Every day, a growing number of Americans are eschewing a staid and plastic life of comfort and safety, instead casting their lot among the fringy legions of that uniquely American bottom-feeder, the carny. A carny is free to pursue his own dreams, be they the simple aspiration to drink turpentine until the onset of blindness, or more dramatic expressions of individuality, such as marrying a she-goat. The carnival doesn’t judge.
Not just any sketchy drifter with a rap sheet and a love for Night Train can be a Merlin of the Midway–it takes a special commitment. Much like a monk who joins an order, the carny life is a world unto itself.