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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 26, 2001)
£f Thursday A deep experience You won’t want to part with Nick Cave’s captivating new album. PAGE 9 PULSE EDITOR: BEVIN CAFFERY bcaffery@gladstone.uoregon.edu m Travis Geny for the Emerald The Gateway Malt will host a carnival complete with rides and games through this Sunday. mu cuts n im Our intrepid reporter makes a trek to Gateway Mall to experience a traveling carnival By Mason West Oregon Daily Emerald Capitalism has sunk to a new level. The big wigs at Gateway Mall in Springfield hired Davis Shows Northwest to bring a carnival to their parking lot to draw attention to their merchants. But really, we don’t care about the stores. There’s a carnival! Rick Spromberg has worked for Davis Shows Northwest for four years, but he started in the carni val business at age 14 working one of the games. For him, carnival life has become family life. He met his wife worldng at a carnival, and their children are con tinuing the tradition working in fairs. But the family connec tions extend further than blood. Spromberg said that people in the different cities the carnival vis its will bring fresh pies or home-cooked meals to the workers while they are setting up. “Meeting people is the greatest thing about this job,” Spromberg said. Making connections is hard to avoid when a guy tries to fling rubber frogs onto lily pads for more than half an hour to win his girlfriend a gi ant stuffed frog. Employee John Fleming got the OK from his boss to lower the number of lily-pad landings required for the big prize from 20 to 18 in order to help the man out. The man still spent more than $35, but his girlfriend was very happy. Such compassion is actually hurtful to game attendants, as they are paid based on a commis sion of the game earnings. According to Fleming, workers can put in 12-hour days and make any (9 9 :'":9 "-9 ''"'9 Reporter’s NOTEBOOK where from $35-$120. The Davis Shows company has more than 45 permanent employees who travel around with the shows. But Spromberg said they also like to find local people to help out. Ruth Landers and Chris Dozier live in Lane Coun ty, and both signed on for some temporary work. While Dozier is just working through Monday, when the carnival will be tom down, Landers is trying to secure a traveling position with the company. Many employees hit the road for just a short while to get some extra cash. Fleming joined the company two weeks ago in Washington to make some money to fix his van. He plans on returning soon to his wife and daughter. “It’s hard work, but you can pick it up when you need to,” he said. The short-term employees work the games and sell tickets. But on his second day of work, Dozier had already mastered the carnival talk. “It’s easy to get people to play. You win some thing every time,” he said. The full-time employees of the company are required to spend 70 hours a year at safety semi nars to be trained to operate the more than 50 rides owned by Davis Shows and to handle any possible dangerous scenarios. It is not surprising that safety is so important to the company; its main business is manufacturing the aluminum fencing that goes around the rides. Spromberg said Davis Shows is the main supplier of this offi cially regulated fencing for the West Coast. The fair will be open through Sunday from noon-10 p.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m.-midnight on weekends. But Spromberg is flexible. “We’re here if the people are here,” he said. Couples can explore their sexuality at adult^tores OK fellow students, here’s the deal: This column is the first of what I hope will be a regular feature about sexuality. Not that I’m in any way an expert on this kind of stuff. I just think that sexuality is an important topic for the public to discuss, and hey, somebody has to do it. Furthermore, I want to know what you think should be the content of this column. What would you like to see discussed? Are you hav ing questions about issues in your own sex life? Any thoughts, questions, comments, com plaints or suggestions for future column topics would be greatly appreciated. You can e-mail me (the address is at the end of this column), send a letter (the address is on page two) or call the office (w^em.theboqkb I figured that a good way to kick off this en deavor would be a bit of reporting on every body’s favorite hangout spot: the sex shop. My adventures in investigative journalism follow. Upon entering the Castle Superstore, the largest sexually oriented business in Lane County, one is immediately struck by the myri ad choices that greet the eye. More than half the size of a Safeway market, the Castle contains so many sex products that I bet it would take the entire cast of “Emmanuelle” at least two life times to use all of it. The first thing I noticed upon walking in was the lingerie. Looking to the left, I saw quite a comprehensive bondage-gear department. My curiosity piqued, I began to make my way to the bondage toys when I ran smack-dab into a friendly couple. The boyfriend was a 19-year old student at Lane Community College, and his girlfriend was an 18-year-old native of the Seat tle area. I sheepishly asked them if they’d be willing to be participants in my research. “Oh, definitely,” the boyfriend said, looking at his partner, who nodded in approval. She had been in the store a few times to pick out lingerie . — the ‘/crazy stuff/’.as her bayfriend put.it He. . wasn’t ashamed to admit that he’d visited the store a few times as well. “This place is great for finding things like massage oils — stuff that’s hard to find unless you know what you’re look ing for,” he said. Walking up to the store’s main counter, I found a 23-year-old fe male employee — the Castle’s store policy does not allow the printing of her name — who looked to be en joying her work. I asked her what kinds of people were the most common visitors to the store. I was surprised when she informed me that far and away the most frequent cus tomers were couples, both young and old. . Turn to Depper., page.1.0.
