© Joe Douglas. 2016

Most children must dream about spending a holiday at a theme park and in the 1950’s a fair ground was the Alton Towers of the day.

My first holiday started with a rosy view of of what to expect but that was very quickly changed.

Life on a working fairground was entirely different. Very late nights, late starts to the day , new friends and a mixture of work and play. In short a completely different environment.

Work was anything from tidying up the ground, machines and stalls to manning the stalls or collecting money on the machines as required.

Play time included mixing with the local children who came to the fair and playing on the machines. Once getting on and off the Ark at speed was mastered the games really got exciting!!

Being tall with bushy curly hair meant I had to take care in in the living wagons after dark. They have low ceilings and gas lighting and on more than one occasion I was advised to put out the sizzling in my hair!!!

One lasting Legacy from my time ‘on the fair’ is that my musical taste was fixed firmly by the music of that period. Frankie Laine, Johnny Ray, Guy Mitchell, Kay Starr, Jo Stafford, Winifred Atwell all feature heavily in my MP3 collection.

Fairground Holidays