Safe fun on State Fair midway a Reithoffer tradition

Posted by admin on Feb 20, 2012 | 0 comments

 

FAIRLEA — Jeff Alberts spends a lot of his work time a few feet in the air — twirling, gyrating, spinning, firing off first in one direction and then in another one the next.

If it weren’t for a compromised equilibrium, Alberts likely would take his turn in all 52 rides along the colorful midway at the State Fair of West Virginia.

Underlings make sure every ride gets the once-over before the day is out.

So it is with America’s biggest carnival extravaganza, Reithoffer Shows, a family business launched in 1896 by Julius Reithoffer, who got it all going that year with a steam-powered carousel.

“I ride three or four a day for safety checks,” Alberts noted Monday.

“You can hear things. You can feel things. It’s just not me. I have six or eight men that do the same things that I do. And there is a foreman on every ride that inspect the rides. Some rides have five or six men on them. You’re getting six to seven sets of eyes on every ride every day.”

Alberts broke in as a “ride guy” and worked his way up the corporate ladder the past 27 years.

“I grew up with it,” he said, noting brothers and sisters likewise were part of the Reithoffer family.

Some safety experts say the best maintained rides are found on the carnival circuit since they are inspected daily, then dismantled and set up again as the show moves to the next spot, as opposed to those permanently anchored at amusement parks.

“We like to say that it is,” Alberts said. “I don’t want to knock any of the parks. They do a lot of maintenance. I have a lot of friends. We go to school with some of the biggest parks in the country, and their maintenance programs are second to none. But for the most part, I tell everybody, what would you rather ride, would you rather ride a ride that’s taken apart every week and set up every week so you see every internal part and everything and get inspected every single, solitary day by our employees and every two weeks they get inspected by different states and jurisdictions, or a park that gets inspected basically once or maybe twice a year by the governments of that state?”

Many Reithoffer workers bring their children on the summer tours. Until one of his children reached college age and a daughter began preparing for high school, Alberts’ entire family made the 31-stop summer run along the East Coast before resettling in Florida, home to most of Reithoffer’s payroll.

“I always say every person through that gate is my kid,” he said. “I want to make sure every ride is safe enough for my kid. When you come to my fair, that’s the way I look at it.”

Alberts cringes at the ancient term “carnie,” one that dogged carnivals decades ago when fly-by-nighters came into towns under the cover of night and generally pulled up stakes a few nights later, leaving behind some sour feelings among the local denizens.

Today, it’s like any other business and Reithoffer Shows strives for a family image.

“It’s not the stigma, I’ll say, from 40 years ago,” Alberts said. “The ‘dirty carnival’ people. That’s definitely not what we are.

“A lot of us have a church we go to. Some of the fairs we go to, they have a church that they bring to us. A lot of us go to church every Sunday in the communities. This is our livelihood. We have our kids with us. We have a hard-hat protection policy. A fall protection policy. One of the toughest drug policies in the industry. I’m off two months a year and I go to safety school for three weeks of that. This is our business. This is our lives. We want people to come here and feel safe in what we do.”

One thing that hasn’t changed is the carnival-goers’ love of thrilling rides, and Reithoffer is only too happy to oblige them.

“Just like I like to say — it’s like jumping out of a plane,” he said, explaining why lines of spectators queue up for a few seconds of heart-pounding action. “The adrenaline rushes.”

At this week’s State Fair, the big attraction is the Wild Mouse.

“It was brand new last year,” Alberts said. “It’s one of only two traveling portable coasters that, while the car is going around the track, the cars spin. It’s the best ride here. You still have the old favorites — the Big Tornado. That’s from Germany. The only one in the country like it. We have the Freakout, which is like a hanging pendulum. We also have the Speed Ride. It’s basically a 120-foot propeller. You sit at the very end of it and g-forces on that are like no others.”

High fuel prices likely are discouraging long family vacations to parks in favor of close-to-home events like the State Fair of West Virginia, Alberts speculated.

“You figure,” Alberts said. “A year ago, we were complaining about it being $2.25 a gallon. Now it’s $4.50. We play in New York where it’s $5 a gallon. Just imagine your expenses being doubled. We probably run seven big generators at this spot. We use some city power, but mostly we’re an inclusive city. We need diesel fuel to run the generators. I’m glad that’s not my department. I don’t even want to know that bill.”

Alberts has been a mainstay at the State Fair of West Virginia ever since Reithoffer made its initial incursion into Greenbrier County about 14 years ago.

“West Virginia is my personal favorite,” he said. “I’ve gained a lot of friends that are people that live in town. When you come back and forth, you meet people every year and you become better friends with them.”