Ryan C. Henriksen
Rick Moise shoots basketballs over his head to entice fair-goers to take a shot at his game at the Boone County Fair Friday. Carnival workers say there are tricks to the games, but they all can be won.
By Bailey Reutzel
Columbia Daily Tribune Saturday, July 30, 2011
Three rows of shiny soda cans and crumpled beer cans zip horizontally at the cork gun game as Altraimaine Sayles tries to entice visitors to shoot-till-you-win for $2
Ladies,” he says to three tall blondes walking past the booth at the 65th annual Boone County Fair, “come get yourself a prize. We’ve got teddy bears.”
The game stand is filled with an array of stuffed animals — small lime-green turtles, yellow and blue bears and the big prize, a plush electric guitar with money print designs.
Brittany Lowery, who travels with the carnival, said she fills the stand with stuff to draw in people because “maybe they don’t see something they want, but they see there’s a bunch of stuff so they decide, ‘Maybe I’ll play.’ ”
Lowery’s grandfather started the Lowery Carnival Co. in the early 1960s, and she was born and raised in the carnival.
She has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and an associate in pre-law, and Lowery said although she wants to find a job in her field of study, she doesn’t have any interest working 9-to-5 when she can make just as much money “being boss” of a few stands at the fair. She owns two game stands and one novelty tent.
Lowery said carnival workers often are misunderstood.
“When people think of carnival workers, they think” we’re “ignorant, that we’re kooks. People associate carnies with trash,” Lowery said.
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