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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.
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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.