BY EARNEST WINSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
BURLINGTON -- They eat together, work together and sleep on the same grounds. They call themselves one big family, although most are not related. They number about 100.
They're the folks behind the games and the concession stands, the people who help you get on rides.
"When something important goes down, we're all one big family," said Mary Ruth Wilson, who along with her husband, Michael, operates three games at this week's Boone County 4-H & Utopia Fair.
The Wilsons have been working fairs and similar events for 21 years. Mrs. Wilson has been doing it for four decades.
"It's like part of my life," she said. "I was born into the business."
Like Mrs. Wilson, most of the people who make this week's fair run have grown up in the business or started young.
Rosie Johns is the third generation in this line of work. Her family has spent the last 10 years with Kissels Rides and Shows, the independent concessionaire that has operated at the Boone County fair for nearly two decades. Besides Kentucky, the company does fairs in Ohio, Indiana, Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama.
Fairs are widely viewed as family events. But many visitors may not realize that the people responsible for making them go are families, as well.
Russell Kissel, general manager of the concessionaire, said any notions that fair workers run crooked games or have unbecoming lifestyles are not true.
More than a dozen families from all parts of the country normally spend 36 weeks annually traveling with Kissels. Several families bring their kids during the summer.
By next year, Kissels plans to have a traveling school for children of employees. The school, housed inside a semi-trailer, will include computers and certified teachers.
"We want our kids to still be around their families. So this way, mom and dad both can raise their kids," said Mr. Kissel. "We're so close-knit. It's like a small community that travels."
Playpens, strollers and toys sit outside several employees' trailer homes on the fairgrounds. Kids wander around -- but never too far from an adult's sight.
Mrs. Wilson said her two children were born into the business, too.
"But this is not what they want to do. So I'm not going to force it on them."
In the off months, Mrs. Wilson is a homemaker and her husband drives trucks.
But for now, she says, "It's an eight-day-a-week job."
