Timothy Harriman is the kind of person I can listen to for hours, giving full attention—in fact, I have. But storytelling is only one of Timothy’s many talents and passions.

Year after year the carnival visited the same towns, and kids who didn’t have funds to get in knew they could always rely on “Crazy Dave” to get their tickets. “It’s called the amusement business and amusement means fun,” he said.

At the beginning of last spring, Ryan Adams, found himself belly up on an operating table at Camden Clark Medical Center in Parkersburg, West Virginia.