Women of Influence: Teresa Rimes

A view from the top…

Teresa Rimes has been working at the International Independent Showmen’s Association (IISA)on the club grounds in Gibsonton, Florida, for 22 years. 

Teresa Rimes

Her official title is trade show secretary as she is in charge of the International Independent Showmen’s Foundation (IISF) Trade Show Extravaganza, the IISF being the fund raising arm of the IISA.  But she also wears many different hats. She coordinates many of the events on the grounds during the off season of the outdoor amusement business industry. 

A lifetime spent as part of the outdoor amusement business

Riverview, Fla. —  Some of Teresa Rimes’ earliest memories were being on a midway. 

“My dad (Forrest Mathews) was a brick layer and my mom (Nancy Mathews) was a registered nurse,” Rimes said. 

But during the operating season for outdoor amusement businesses, her parents worked for Jerry Bohlander, who owned a variety of joints (game booths). Her parents would take  some of these on the road during the season such as pitches, goldfish and basketball.

During the season, Rimes would go with them, as would her siblings. Rimes was the oldest child. Then came Carla  11 months later. Jeff was 13 months younger than Carla. 

The family played on several shows with Bohlander Games. They played on Otterbacher Shows, Mighty Blue Grass Shows and Farrow Amusements. 

Rimes, her sister and brother all began working as they became older. When her father purchased a cook house, they worked that. 

“We did everything,” she said. “I liked working the cook house the best, but I never minded working anything.

“We never missed any school, either,” Rimes said. 

If the season would run into the fall, Rimes and her siblings would leave the midway with Bohlander’s wife, Connie Bohlander, and their daughter. They would stay with her and go to school until their parents were off the road. 

“It was never very long, but that made sure we were in school on time,” she said. “It was just the way it was.”

Born in New Castle, Indiana, Rimes has many memories of those early days on the midway. She remembers the older joints, the ones with no tops.

“If it started to rain, we would just pull the tarps up over the joint,” she said. “It was just a different time then.”

She also remembers a time when her father was arrested. She and her siblings sat and watched while the police handcuffed him and “put them in the paddy wagon.”

“A bunch of men were arrested that day,” she said. “My dad was charged with the delinquency of minors. The minors were us.”

The men arrested, including her father, were brought back later that day with charges dropped. 

“The whole thing, really, was a set up,” Rimes said. “I think they were just waiting.”

Rimes said her family was with Bohlander for many years even after  her family moved south to Ruskin, Florida, located about 12 miles south of Gibsonton, Florida, when she was in the sixth grade. 

After graduating from high school, she went right back on the road in a more full time capacity. She certainly knew the ropes and how things worked. 

Rimes married William Ham, who also worked in the industry.  They went on the road with poppers. And they had a son, Dustin Ham, who is now 35 years old. 

Rimes and her husband eventually parted ways. 

“It was more difficult being on the road with a young son,” she said.

 She took her poppers out on the road with Reithoffer Shows. 

Rimes began working for the IISA 22 years ago. She also married Al Rimes

She still can be seen from time to time on a midway. 

“If someone needs some extra help, I’ll go,” she said. 

Rimes still loves the industry. She loves the people and traveling.

Rimes said her son still lives in the Ruskin area, but he is not in the outdoor amusement business. 

“I think many of the young people today that grew up in this business do decide to go down different paths,” she said. 

Rimes has seen many changes in the industry over the years and particularly to the IISF trade show, which has decreased in size. 

“Technology is such that people don’t need to come here anymore,” she said. “It is cheaper to do business another way. Prices of everything have gotten so high.

“But we do have many  supporters that don’t need to come, but do just to support us,” she said. “Some people really do still feel they need a presence.”

Rimes said the IISF trade show took a hit from the pandemic.

“But, we all said business would come back and it did,” she said. “Many carnival operators and supplier companies had one of the best years in 2021 they ever had.”

She also loves the water. She and her husband live on the waterfront. They have a boat that they take out on the waterways and sometimes out into Tampa Bay. 

Rimes also loves working in her yard as long as it is before the end of June. 

“By that time, it is really hot here,” she said.

—Pam Sherborne

This article appears in the  FEBRUARY 2022 issue of Amusement Today.
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