In my youth there were two fairs that used to come to Chichester: Gala Day in Priory Park (July) and Sloe Fair in Oaklands Car Park (October). They're both still going. Back then the Big Wheel and Octopus were about as wild as it got. I loved all the sounds & smells and being given some money for the evening, which probably amounted to the three rides I just granted my children. I remember the dead hard guys who worked the dodgems or spun the rollercoasters to the squeals of the girls therein; and their tattooed molls (or more likely sisters) who were not retiring when it came to fixing the coconut shy; or the enormously long lorries which carried & powered all the rides, and also pulled a caravan or two.
I particularly remember a friend, Rick Murray, pulling a girl free from the wheels of a rollercoaster at Gala Day. It was incredibly impressive, done in an instant, he just yanked her out. Everyone was in awe. And yet he seemed almost embarrassed. "It was nothing, honest". What a guy.
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