Carnie Duo Happy Living Lives ... On the Road
Note: This was one of those story assignments that make reporters wince. "We need you to cover the opening of the County Fair." Um, OK. So I went out there and tried to find the best angle I could. And I think I did. This is what I decided to focus on after making at least three rounds through the dusty fairgrounds, an empty notebook in hand and a photographer growing impatient.
By Corey Lyons
Contra Costa Newspapers
May 30, 2003
ANTIOCH -- Rae, the toe ring queen, and Bob, the palm-reading wizard, met three years ago at a fair in Oklahoma.
Life has been a kaleidoscope of midway mirth ever since.
The pair tours the nation in a 19-foot mobile home, ringing toes and reading wrinkled hands at dozens of county fairs.
"We don't get rich -- but we have a hell of a fun time," said Bob Tanenbaum, whose two computerized prophets, Jeannie and Wizard, read palms for $2 a pop.
Thursday, they joined dozens of other bohemian entrepreneurs during the first day of the 68th Contra Costa County Fair. The gates open at 11 a.m. today.
Near others pitching henna tattoos, hats and caps, carved signs ("made in 10 minutes!") and Italian charms, the wizard and the toe ring lady cut an odd twosome.
Rae Middleton, 47, sat in a cozy tent with a carpeted floor, an overhead chandelier and burning incense.
And toe rings. So many toe rings. (They sell for $6 to $60 apiece.)
"I wear 23; I sort of go overboard," said Middleton, a jovial woman with an easy smile.
Three years ago, she had her palm read by Tanenbaum, 58, who was immediately struck by her laughter and bubbly personality.
So they struck a partnership. Each year, Middleton leaves her one-stoplight hometown east of Tulsa, Okla. on Jan. 1 and drives to Las Vegas to hook up with Tanenbaum.
From there, they pile their goods into a mobile home and get lost in the fair circuit for about nine months.
It's a journey that leaves them free to explore the country and its people, free from the grip of corporate America and its cubicled lifestyle.
"I feel like I'm putting toe rings on the world," Middleton said, giggling.
Right next to her kiosk is Tanenbaum's.
He watches over a pair of computerized palm readers he built himself. One is a long-bearded wizard in a flowing purple robe who reads left hands. The other is Jeannie, an expressionless brunette who analyzes right hands.
It's $2 a hand or $3 for both hands. A computerized printout delivers the good or bad news.
"They're 80 to 90 percent accurate," said Tanenbaum, a former dancer whose gnarly beard is similar to his wizard's. "And not only do people get a printout, but also my interpretation."
Once, a girl demanded her money back because she got a speeding ticket while leaving a fair after a palm reading. The reading said, "Rushing will prove to be costly."
Tanenbaum realizes he can make more money in what he described as a "real job." But why?
In order to help fund this lifestyle on the road, he rents out his Las Vegas home for most of the year.
Then, he and the toe ring lady explore the western United States, or, as the wizard put it, "my back yard of 3,000 square miles."
By Corey Lyons
Contra Costa Newspapers
May 30, 2003
ANTIOCH -- Rae, the toe ring queen, and Bob, the palm-reading wizard, met three years ago at a fair in Oklahoma.
Life has been a kaleidoscope of midway mirth ever since.
The pair tours the nation in a 19-foot mobile home, ringing toes and reading wrinkled hands at dozens of county fairs.
"We don't get rich -- but we have a hell of a fun time," said Bob Tanenbaum, whose two computerized prophets, Jeannie and Wizard, read palms for $2 a pop.
Thursday, they joined dozens of other bohemian entrepreneurs during the first day of the 68th Contra Costa County Fair. The gates open at 11 a.m. today.
Near others pitching henna tattoos, hats and caps, carved signs ("made in 10 minutes!") and Italian charms, the wizard and the toe ring lady cut an odd twosome.
Rae Middleton, 47, sat in a cozy tent with a carpeted floor, an overhead chandelier and burning incense.
And toe rings. So many toe rings. (They sell for $6 to $60 apiece.)
"I wear 23; I sort of go overboard," said Middleton, a jovial woman with an easy smile.
Three years ago, she had her palm read by Tanenbaum, 58, who was immediately struck by her laughter and bubbly personality.
So they struck a partnership. Each year, Middleton leaves her one-stoplight hometown east of Tulsa, Okla. on Jan. 1 and drives to Las Vegas to hook up with Tanenbaum.
From there, they pile their goods into a mobile home and get lost in the fair circuit for about nine months.
It's a journey that leaves them free to explore the country and its people, free from the grip of corporate America and its cubicled lifestyle.
"I feel like I'm putting toe rings on the world," Middleton said, giggling.
Right next to her kiosk is Tanenbaum's.
He watches over a pair of computerized palm readers he built himself. One is a long-bearded wizard in a flowing purple robe who reads left hands. The other is Jeannie, an expressionless brunette who analyzes right hands.
It's $2 a hand or $3 for both hands. A computerized printout delivers the good or bad news.
"They're 80 to 90 percent accurate," said Tanenbaum, a former dancer whose gnarly beard is similar to his wizard's. "And not only do people get a printout, but also my interpretation."
Once, a girl demanded her money back because she got a speeding ticket while leaving a fair after a palm reading. The reading said, "Rushing will prove to be costly."
Tanenbaum realizes he can make more money in what he described as a "real job." But why?
In order to help fund this lifestyle on the road, he rents out his Las Vegas home for most of the year.
Then, he and the toe ring lady explore the western United States, or, as the wizard put it, "my back yard of 3,000 square miles."
posted by Corey at 8:21 PM
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