its been an interesting week for me. Usually we attend 2 major funfairs over the Whitsuntide holiday, Richmond and Harrogate, both in North Yorkshire. This year, due to a number of corporate bookings we decided to kick Harrogate into touch and concentrate on paid work.
The first of these was a private party at a stunning house in Cleckheaton. Unfortunately when I got there the courtyard, at the top of a steep hill, was too small to manouvre the ride into position. After struggling for about 20 minutes, I decided to uncouple and try and manhandle it where it needed to go. After struggling for another 20 minutes, a bouncy castle operator decided to help me. We struggled together but still made no progress. Eventually we decided to tie a rope from his van to the towbar on the front of the ride, and drag it around. We moved it slowly but steadily closer to where it needed to be. Suddenly I could see he was pulling the ride, over the wooden chocks I had placed in front of the wheels. I shouted WHOA, (which where I come from means stop, or more precisely stop bloody quickly). Unfortunately he came from somewhere different and put his foot down. The ride jumped the chocks and set off down the hill. I watched with my heart in my mouth, already calculating how much the recovery bill was going to be. Fortunately (for me) the ride was stopped when it ran into the back of the bouncy castle mans van. The damage was merely scuffing of his paint, which surprised me. He decided against helping me further and left me with the ride half way down the drive, and the lorry stuck behind it.
I ended up having to ring Renny, who fortunately was making another of our visits to the Ponderosa centre. He arrived and we once again had everything under control.
The whole incident reminded me of a time about 14 years ago, when I was helping another operator manhandle a large amusement arcade at the Pontefract Status fair. With a number of people pushing, the attraction set off down the fairground gathering speed. A number of wooden blocks were thrown in front of the wheels but it just rode over them. All the while, I was holding the towbar, which as we was pushing the device backwards, I was at what was effectively the rear. For some reason I dug my heels in, I weighed about 12 stone at the time and the arcade was maybe 15 tonnes so you do the maths. I resembled a Warner Bros. cartoon character leaving 2 deep trenches with my feet.
The arcade as I remember was heading straight towards Stewert Robinsons waltzer. Richard, a long time employee of Stewerts, was busy dismantling the waltzer. He looked up, saw the arcade coming and then looked back down to concentrate on his job. Seconds later, his brain had relayed the message from his eyes and he looked back up with his eyes bulging, another good candidate for a Loony Toons cartoon. Diving out of the way just in time, the arcade crashed into the Waltzer and came to a rest.
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The first of these was a private party at a stunning house in Cleckheaton. Unfortunately when I got there the courtyard, at the top of a steep hill, was too small to manouvre the ride into position. After struggling for about 20 minutes, I decided to uncouple and try and manhandle it where it needed to go. After struggling for another 20 minutes, a bouncy castle operator decided to help me. We struggled together but still made no progress. Eventually we decided to tie a rope from his van to the towbar on the front of the ride, and drag it around. We moved it slowly but steadily closer to where it needed to be. Suddenly I could see he was pulling the ride, over the wooden chocks I had placed in front of the wheels. I shouted WHOA, (which where I come from means stop, or more precisely stop bloody quickly). Unfortunately he came from somewhere different and put his foot down. The ride jumped the chocks and set off down the hill. I watched with my heart in my mouth, already calculating how much the recovery bill was going to be. Fortunately (for me) the ride was stopped when it ran into the back of the bouncy castle mans van. The damage was merely scuffing of his paint, which surprised me. He decided against helping me further and left me with the ride half way down the drive, and the lorry stuck behind it.
I ended up having to ring Renny, who fortunately was making another of our visits to the Ponderosa centre. He arrived and we once again had everything under control.
The whole incident reminded me of a time about 14 years ago, when I was helping another operator manhandle a large amusement arcade at the Pontefract Status fair. With a number of people pushing, the attraction set off down the fairground gathering speed. A number of wooden blocks were thrown in front of the wheels but it just rode over them. All the while, I was holding the towbar, which as we was pushing the device backwards, I was at what was effectively the rear. For some reason I dug my heels in, I weighed about 12 stone at the time and the arcade was maybe 15 tonnes so you do the maths. I resembled a Warner Bros. cartoon character leaving 2 deep trenches with my feet.
The arcade as I remember was heading straight towards Stewert Robinsons waltzer. Richard, a long time employee of Stewerts, was busy dismantling the waltzer. He looked up, saw the arcade coming and then looked back down to concentrate on his job. Seconds later, his brain had relayed the message from his eyes and he looked back up with his eyes bulging, another good candidate for a Loony Toons cartoon. Diving out of the way just in time, the arcade crashed into the Waltzer and came to a rest.
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