Diana South, a Muncie resident, has been working at the Muncie Carnival in the Muncie Mall parking lot for the past four days. She works the duck pond booth to supplement her income working at a day care during the day.
Q: What is it like working your booth?
A: It’s fun when we’re busy. It’s fun to let the kids come up and play. They win every time so they really don’t have to do anything. They just play in the water and splash around and they win.
Q: What is your favorite part about working with the kids?
A: It’s that they get to pick whatever they want, so if they want the smallest thing or the biggest thing they can get whatever they want. There’s no ‘Sorry you only get this prize or that prize,’ you can get whatever.
Q: How did you get started working at the carnival?
A: My husband [Doug] worked for a different carnival for about 13 years, and we know somebody that is actually local and is working with this show and traveling. So he knew they [the carnival] needed some help, so he talked to us and asked us if we wanted to work.
Q: What is one crazy story that stands out to you about working here so far?
A: Well like I said, the kids are going to win anyway so it’s fun to me, especially the little kids. The biggest fun of it is splashing around the water. So I always tell them to make the biggest splash they can make. It’s funny to me, sometimes the parents or whoever is with them doesn’t hear me say that, so when they start splashing they’re like ‘O-h no, no don’t splash the water everywhere,’ and I’m like ‘It’s okay they’re allowed.’
Q: Do you still go to the carnival in your free time?
A: Yes [laughing], actually today has been really slow and all I can think about is going to ride rides, I was like ‘I’m not making any money I want to go ride rides.’
Q: What do you do when the carnival’s closed?
A: Well, normally I work my regular job which is at the day care, [the] New Beginnings Daycare on South Walnut.
Q: Are you a Muncie resident?
A: I was born here, we lived here until I was 12. My dad is from Kentucky so I lived there for a while, then I came back to Muncie, then I went back to Kentucky, then I came back to Muncie, then I moved to Indy for a year, and I have been back here for about two-and-a-half years. Altogether, I don’t know, about 18 years or something like that.
Q: Are you going to continue working at the carnival when it moves on?
A: I am going to work through the week that they’re here and then they asked me if I wanted to work at their next spot, which is in Marion, which is not too far from here, but I don’t know if I want to drive that far. I can see myself doing it when they’re here, but not traveling.
Q: Do you have fun working here?
A: I do have fun, sometimes, and sometimes it’s boring, like yesterday it rained and there weren’t a lot of people here. Usually if it’s at least fairly busy, even if I am not making a lot of money, I just talk to the people. Since I work at a day care I’ve seen a lot of kids come through here that either were in my class formerly or are currently in day care, so that’s kind of neat, I get to see them running around riding rides. Especially the ones that are older now that go to school, I don’t get to see them. I’ve seen two today, who are in kindergarten or first grade that I hadn’t seen since they were 1. So they are all big and they talk and they play and they’re just so cute.
