There’s something about a carnival that’s in Jackie Bosch’s blood.

&uot;When you see the lights on, and smell the food, hear all the people laughing and see them smiling, it makes you feel good,&uot; she said. &uot;It puts something in your blood.&uot;

It seems to be in the rest of her family’s blood, too. Most of her family grew up living the carnival life and now work for the Lowery Carnival, which has been at the Freeborn County Fair this week. She’s a fourth-generation carnie. Her father, Bill Lowery, is the owner, and she and her two brothers run different aspects of the carnival with help from their children.

For some people, carnivals may only be a few hours a year of eating popcorn, winning oversized stuffed monkeys and getting dizzy on the Wacky Worm. To the Lowery family, the carnival is a way of life from March until November, something Bosch knew as a child and now lives most of the year.

Some people’s perception of the typcial carnie is of a toothless, dishonest, ignorant drifter. But members of the Lowery clan consider themselves to be proprietors a normal family business who pay taxes, work hard, go to church &045; and have all their teeth &045; but also get the benefits of the carnival life.

Bosch, 37, said it’s great way to grow up. She started at age 11 working a food booth and moved on to games. Now she does bookkeeping and a little of everything else. Her daughter, Brooke, 10, started working this summer. Her other daughter, Brittany, 16, started at a little older age.

She said it has given her two children street smarts and responsibility. Brooke, 10, can take orders at a food stand, take money and make change with no problems. Not all kids can do that, Bosch said.

Her kids, nieces and nephews all stay at their homes near the Gulf of Mexico during the school year. But they spend their summers exposed to more different towns, states, people, cultures and races than most kids see throughout the year. And while they’re constantly in a foreign environment, she said many of the carnival’s 90 employees are constantly watching out for the children on the grounds.

Jackie’s brother Willie, 39, who runs the day-to-day operations, said the exposure teaches the children to people good and bad. &uot;A lot of kids are sheltered,&uot; he said.

His child, nieces and nephews regularly see the worst of people &045; drunk people, fights and the like &045; but he said the majority of people just have a good time.

But he has a lot of fond memories from childhood.

He remembers spending summer days and nights at swimming holes and greased-pig contests. He remembers searching fairgrounds for hay-filled barns and making forts. &uot;Normal things that kids do, just in different places every week,&uot; he said.

He said the stereotypes about carnies are an insult to his family and its way of life.

&uot;People believe what they hear,&uot; he said, but &uot;we’re no different from the guy who owns the local hardware store.&uot;

He pointed out one benefit of a family business from the Lowery office, a furnished semi-trailer. &uot;From here I can see my brother, my sister, my father, and my wife and son over in the golf cart. What other business can you see your whole family?&uot;

He said he wouldn’t be in the business without his family, and like many of the Lowerys, he said it’s all he’s ever known.

He said he was given a choice when he graduated high school &045; go to college or keep working at the carnival. He now wishes he had gone to college and then returned to the carnival. However, &uot;I always wanted to do this. I couldn’t do anything else.&uot;

Jarred Lowery, 18, isn’t so sure. He’s the oldest among the latest Lowery generation and the first to have to seriously decide his future. He graduated this spring from high school and will decide whether

he’ll go to college after he finishes off the carnival season in the fall. Standing in a tank top near &uot;The Inverter,&uot; a new ride he will operate, he said he doesn’t know what he’ll do, but he thinks about it every day. He said his family has been supportive, and hasn’t pressured him.

Jarred said the carnival has given him an education in streets smarts and an opportunity to see some wild things, like a man biting anther’s nose off and spitting it on the ground. He’s seen irate customers, people trying to cheat him with counterfeit tickets and lots of fights.

And while he’s learned plenty of lessons, and he loves the life, he said carnival life has its drawbacks &045; like how between summer and winter he didn’t see his dad much, and how when he is on the road he has little privacy because he sees his family all the time.

His cousin Brittany, 16 and the second-oldest, said the life isn’t for her. She loves it, but it doesn’t give her the same thrill as her younger cousins, who like thinking of how to improve and create different games, and still like going on rides. If Jarred doesn’t go to college, she’ll be the first Lowery to attend. The honor student wants to go to either Vanderbilt or Duke universities, where she might study to be a sports trainer.

She said she doesn’t have the temperament for the carnival. She gets angry about the stereotypes, and admitted she can be rude to customers. &uot;I don’t have a heart in this. If I did, I’d be able to take anything.&uot;

Bosch, her mother, said she doesn’t mind. She wants her daughter to enjoy what she does.

Bill Lowery, 63, the owner, said he couldn’t have such a successful business without his children. He said there’s some sibling rivalry, as in most families. He said he’s the reason fights don’t get out of hand. He has a dual authority as father and boss.

Being a carnie is something he was born into, has always been, and loves to be. Most carnivals are run by families, and he couldn’t think of one that wasn’t. It’s clear that’s the future for his children. Now it’s time for the next generation to decide if they will accept that future.

But it is in their blood.

(Contact Tim Sturrock at tim.sturrock @albertleatribune.com or 379-3438.)