Stitching Across the Country

Between jobs and with a dream of Clown College, I took the opportunity to be a vendor with the Disney on Ice Peter Pan Tour on its "rodeo route" from just after Thanksgiving 1991 in Boise, ID to Easter 1992 in Baltimore (the last two stands were with the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus at two of their largest arenas of that tour). Chicago and Boston was the Time Machine Tour where we went on loan while Peter Pan went to New York City, where there were union vendors.

I got to see the broad spectrum of places and people, including my first-ever visits to Canada! My talents don't include sales, so while I did OK, the disappointment of having customers holding off until a favorite vendor arrived, or dealing with various artificial constructs of implied castes.

I'll remember the cities and kind people favorably, but have no desire to run the seats to try to sell souvenir mugs full of shaved ice or bags of cotton candy that constantly dropped from the pole used to carry them. Chicago, Boston, and Baltimore were cool, working out of the popcorn stand, and receiving much better treatment from the concession bosses there.