The sights, sounds and smells of a carnival bring smiles to most faces.  Excitement fills the air as people flock to the carnival grounds to play as many games, ride as many rides and eat as much "carnival food" as they can before the carnival leaves town.  For Sherry Rawlings Young, the carnival was ALWAYS in town.

Sherry's family has a long history in the food concession and carnival business.  Her grandparents, Richard and Barbara Jean Schoonover, owned a carnival show named "Schoonover California Shows." Sherry's mom, Lynette Schoonover Rawlings, has a successful food concession business and her father, Robert Rawlings, performed when he was young for his parents in a motorcycle stunt show owned by his parents.  In addition to her parents and grandparents, Sherry's aunts and uncles were also involved in the carnival business.

Sherry, born in Fort Campbell, Kentucky to Lynette and Robert Rawlings, moved to the San Francisco, California area when her dad got out of the military.  Lynette and Robert wanted to return to their family, friends and the carnival business.  When they first arrived in California, both Lynette and Robert went to work in the food concession business with Barbara Jean Schoonover, Lynette's mother.   

Sherry's mother kept a detailed baby journal filled with stories such as, when she was six months old, her mother would place her in different stands during the day while she was working. She also read about how they would put her on the merry-go-round each night to put her to sleep.  Sherry remembers, as a young child, riding that same merry-go-round in her grandparents back yard.

Eventually, Sherry's dad took a regular job outside the carnival, while her mom continue to work for other people in the food concession industry.  It was her mother's goal to save enough money to open a business of her own. When Sherry was around eleven years old, her parents had finally saved enough money to start their own business.  Her mother started off with pepper steak stand and her business continued to grow from there.  Her family not only worked carnivals and fairs, but concerts as well.  Sherry was fortunate to have seen many famous musicians perform, such as Jimmy Buffet and Jackson Brown. In addition, her family followed the horse racing circuit, car shows and sporting events.  She remembers selling water at a World Cup soccer event.  Sherry had the chance to see things as a child that many adults have never seen.

Sherry traveled with her parents until she was old enough to start school.  Unlike the way they had grown up, moving from school to school, Sherry's parents wanted her to stay at the same school and have more of a stable life than what they had.  In order to accomplish this, when the carnival season started and her parents went "on the road," Sherry would stay with friends of the family and finish out the school year.  

Once school was out for summer, she would attend summer camp, then join her parents on the road.  After breaking her arm, Sherry stopped going to summer camps each year and joined her parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins who all worked the carnivals.   Once the stands were set up at the next fair, that area became Sherry's "home" for a the next few days or weeks, depending on the length of the carnival.  For Sherry and her fellow carnie kids, the different fairgrounds were their backyards.  She and the other kids, whose parents worked the carnival, had the whole carnival to run and play in.

Sherry said, "When we were not working in the food stands  we would go down to the joints.  The joints are where the games are, and they would pay us to carry around big teddy bears and act like we won them.  We would tell everyone where we had won them.  We were also gophers.  The people who do the rides are called 'ride jocks' and we would go around and ask them if they needed anything to eat and we would go for (gopher) anything they needed and they would pay us.  We would walk around with corn dogs or whatever and get paid $ .25 to $1.00 for it. We would also work in the grandstands selling popcorn and candy.  Back then it was fun!"  

She continued, "We made pretty good money for kids.  All of us kids seemed to always have money."  Having plenty of money was nice when the group would have a day off.  When they would arrive at a new location for a fair, they would go visit to the various things the city had to offer, such as museums, wineries, movies, beaches etc. 

When she was 15 years old, Sherry ran her first stand.  She worked for other people in addition to her mom.  She worked for her grandpa who had novelties and she would blow up balloons and tell kids to get their parents to come buy something. She said, "You just have to be a goof and have fun.  Having fun draws people to your business more."  Sherry and the others worked hard, but had a fun time too.

She learned to take public transportation in almost every town they traveled to.  Each year in Sacramento, at the California State Fair, which was the last fair they would work, she and her friends looked forward to going to the state capital mall and shop.  When the season was over and Sherry returned to school, her mom was the yard teacher and the softball coach.  She pitched in and was a part of everything Sherry ever did.

However, as she got older, Sherry started slipping into a whole new world that her mom knew nothing about.  Sherry lost interest in school.  She said, "The things they were talking about at school; I had already seen and done."

Having been free to do so many things, some of the kids got mixed up into the drug world and some didn't.  Unfortunately, Sherry was one of the ones that did. 

By 1988, Sherry had two kids and was struggling with her drug habit and knew she needed to get away from that "scene" in California.  She and a friend moved to Pensacola, Florida where she stayed for a couple of years.  By 1990, Sherry now had three kids and had moved to Elberta, Alabama.

Sherry said, "My mother is one of the strongest women I've ever seen.  She believes in tough love and that is exactly what I needed at the time."  Her mother told her that she was there for her, once she straightened herself back up...which is what she did. 

While in Elberta, Sherry went to Faulkner State Community College and worked toward getting her G.E.D.  After she got her diploma, her mother helped her to purchase some land and a house in Loxley.  She continued to go to Faulkner, trying to better her life, but things were getting tough.  She only knew the carnival business and there was none of that there.  She was struggling to hold down a job, pay a sitter and keep her grades up; not to mention, that other than her kids, she didn't know anyone in Alabama.  As she was about to give up, she found a sitter who offered to take care of her kids for free while she was in school.  Sherry said, "She was my angel."

Eventually the strain was too much, so she quit Faulkner and continued to work.  It was then that her mom offered her a deal.  If Sherry would go to school for two years and get a degree in something that would allow her to get a job, she would pay off Sherry's property.  Sherry was determined to be successful and enrolled in the welding program at Bishop State Community College. 

She qualified for vocational rehabilitation and that helped her to get some tools and a job.  Then, about half-way through the program, she won a scholarship from the American Welding Society.  The scholarship allowed the vocational rehabilitation program to end, which allowed them to help someone else who needed it, and it paid off the remainder of her school tuition.

Sherry graduated as an Honor Student and received Outstanding Student in her field. Sherry's fun personality showed as she laughed and said (about graduation), "I thought it was dumb, since we had to wear the gown, but we had to wear a white dress and black shoes.  I was a single mom with three kids and I didn't have a white dress and black shoes.  So, I borrowed a dress from the neighbor, made a pattern out of it (I learned to sew from my grandmother) and made a white dress.  As for the black shoes, I wore my work boots!  All they said was black shoes...they didn't say what kind!" 

Sherry's mom made sure she left the carnival and flew in to see Sherry graduate from college.  They had a big shrimp boil and then Lynette flew back to join her crew.  Both she and Sherry were tremendously proud of this huge accomplishment.

Sherry traveled back to California during the summers with her kids to help with the carnivals. Sherry loved being back with her friends and the comfort of the carnival.  Sherry's kids loved helping, and the money they came back with, was nice as well.  When Sherry's kids were old enough, each summer they would go and work for their grandmother, then return home for school. 

In August of 2001, Sherry and her husband decided to go back to California.  During this time, she found out that she was bi-polar, which explained a lot of the trouble she had when she was younger.  They worked for her mother at the various carnivals in Arizona and in California.  By this time, her children were grown and all three were working for their grandmother.

It was hard for Sherry to work the carnival schedule and take her medication for her disorder on a regular basis.  Although she loved the carnival life, Sherry and her husband decided it was too much and moved back to Alabama.  In 2011, she and her husband bought a cute house in Elberta.

Sherry got a job at Grits-n-Gravy, which she loves, because now that she doesn't travel anymore, tourist come in and see her.  Sherry has stacks and stacks of pictures and memorabilia dating way back of her family in the carnival business.  Sherry's family, including her children and grandchildren are still out in California working the fairs.

She has wonderful memories of all the "fun time jobs" she has held in the carnival business...but says, "I like my little job and my house here in Alabama. And I'm happy."