Family Background

Hello; I thought I'd tell you a little more about my family. My mom and dad both came from large families each having five brothers and sisters. My dad is from Jonesville, South Carolina a small town near the boarder with North Carolina. He had the traditional small town upbringing. My grandfather James Vernan Ivey was a talented musician who played one of the sweetest guitars I've ever heard. He had a short run on a local radio show at one point. His tie in to the carnival business is that he and my dad both worked games on the east coast shows. J V worked dime pitches and rat wheels. My dad sometimes worked with him on the microphone, but he later worked games such as the pin store and the six cat games most of you probably don't remember. I also have an uncle Tony Ivey who sang with a national choir and another ncle J V the 4th I think who still plays guitar at family gatherings. orry to say I never picked it up myself not for a lack of really trying to. Besides my dad and grandfather, none of the other Iveys had much of anything to do with the business. Then there is my mom's side of the family. She is from Houston, and her family eventually moved to a suburb of Houston callled Spring. Her dad Ralph Wagner started a carnival back in the 1950's. His show was eventually considered one of the finest in Texas with one of the strongest routs. Back then most shows had eight or nine rides and pieces such as the tilt-a-whirl, octopus, ferris wheel, and merry-go-rounds were king. Besides my mom pretty much everyone in the wagner side of the family was in or is still in the carnival business. My Uncle Robert inherited the show from my grandfather and ran it for many years before selling out to Heart Of America Shows a large carnival now that still plays many of the dates my grandfather used to. My Uncle Rusty wagner worked games for a while before choosing to join the ministry. My Uncle Harry and Aunte Marguirite didn't have a lot to do with the show after they were married, but my aunte worked games and food quite often. My Uncle John Crouch had a very nice show for years. He eventually let his son Bobby take over the business. Bobby was seriously injured in an accident involving a generator truck and was burned severely. This eventually led to him leaving the business. My Uncle Albert along with my cousins Jason, Haley Dawn, and Albert Wayne and their families operate Wagner's Amusements. They have a nice fifteen ride show with several good pieces and are growing fast. This leaves my own little show. My dad started with three rides in the late 1970's with the plan being to do birthday parties and company picnics. We had a pony cart, a lady bugs, and a clownface moonwalk. Eventually we would have a few more rides, but we never really acumulated much equipment in spite of our ability to book events even events that called for far more rides than we owned. We did ok until his death three winters ago. Since then, me and my brother Patrick realized that we weren't capable of keeping the show going, so we started booking in with my Uncle Albert's carnival. We are now playing with them on a year round basis. This is part of my reason for making the move into the equipment side of the business. I am no longer needed for help with booking or promoting events. While this helped push me into doing this full time, I had been helping friends and family sell used rides for about five or six years. I'll tell you more about that later. But this past winter I decided to go all in to borrow a Texas Hold Em phrase. I started my website, began lining up sellers, and started getting the word out. I'm hoping this blog will help me with that. Now, before I wrap this message up I want to tell you about a couple of really nice pieces. First, there is a Sartori Rodeo and a Top Fun Magic castle on my website. The seller has authorized me to offer them both as a package deal for 70000 euros or about 100000 U s dollars given the current exchange rate. I'l attach a couple pictures here. If you or anyone you know would like to see more photos or get more information, then please visit my website http://www.midwaymarketplace.com I do hope to hear from some of you soon. Thanks, Maxmaxwellivey@aol.com