Monday, August 9, 2010

longest yard sale...part three

On through Tennesee we went.
Another find I love were these darling chalkware dogs.
The gentleman had bought them a long time ago from a carnival.
"Long before the modern-day amusement park, the carnival was summer’s go-to place for a good time.


Carnivals had a single goal: Get customers inside the tent. The games of “skill” that lined the midway did their best to entice passersby. Barkers shouted out challenges—“Step right up and win a prize!” More often than not, the prizes were chalkware figures—dogs were particularly popular. Lads eager to impress their gals or to one-up the competition stepped up to the counter to test their skills and win one of the molded
plaster of Paris figures. The better the performance, the bigger the prize.
Once won, the coveted prizes often met ignominious ends. Not only were they easily broken, many became targets for slingshot practice, and young girls used the broken pieces to make sidewalk hopscotch games. By the 1960s, chalkware had been replaced by stuffed animals, which were less expensive and didn’t break."
(source: www.thebark.com/content/carnival-chalkware-dogs)


I think they are soo cute!!
a few more of my finds...

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