Once the bosses seen I could handle myself they gave me half a joint. It was a build up game shuffleboard. The idea was to keep the marks playing. Each dollar spent move you up the wall to a better prize. If you win, that is! Five dollars a game you could play for the bigger prizes. $20 a game and you win the big one! My talking was fair. Never did I lie. Or, did I clean out a parent.

Where did the term “barker” come from I do not know. If you were a member of the carnival, you were “with it”. You were a “spieler”. Work the rides, you were a “ride jock”.

Ride jocks and people working the booths did not associate. Except for me and a couple others we gathered in separate areas when the lights went down and the carousel music stopped. I slept in the semitrailer with a couple jocks. I fit into every group it seems.