Fun At The Fair
I can remember growing up in England, waiting in anticipation for the
Southampton Fair to arrive at the Commons.
The Commons are a large green area in the middle of the city
where I would spend a lot of time as a child.
I would hang out there with my friends, traipsing through the grass and
the woods. Spending summer afternoons mucking about in the ponds
trying to catch newts and tadpoles.
But it was the summer fair...
with it's deafening noise and trashy flashing lights,
its awful smells of fried onions and hot dogs, and the rides
that would make me feel ill. And the tacky prizes that you longed to win.
Nonetheless, all of this drew me back summer after summer.
It was where all the kids hung out, the cool kids, the beautiful girls with
the equally beautiful boys. Where I always wanted to be older
than I really was.
This weekend I had my grandson Jack for a sleepover. After a fun Friday
night of two movies and popcorn, Jack asked me if tomorrow I could take
him to Sidney to a bookstore we had visited before.
I think he still had his eye on a book of lego he had seen there.
As we travelled along the highway we could see up ahead the
turning of a Ferris Wheel, seats swinging back and forth with body-less legs
dangling in all directions.
His face lit up!
'Want to go?' I asked.
"Sure" he cooly replied , but I could read his body language, his feet tapping,
his hands gripped either side of the seat.
"Ok, lets go!" I said.
Huge smile.
With a book of twenty tickets in hand - in we went.
It was pretty much how I described the fair of my childhood,
nothing had changed, only me!
All of it now looking more tacky that fun. But I had my Jack with me
to relive it again. The joy, and excitement of watching him running
from ride to ride. Hearing his laughter as a ride took him up vertically
a hundred feet or so,
then the screams as he descended.
Our twenty tickets all used up in just a few minutes, we walk out the
gates with candy floss in hand.
Then . . .
"Can we still go to the bookstore?"
"You betcha!"
I love that boy!
love from Victoria
Wow...what a great day, and, you got to be a kid again.
ReplyDeleteThe big event for me, when the fair turned up in our village, was to win a coconut. And I always did.
ReplyDeleteRemain childlike, be creative every day, laugh, yes, mybabyjohn...these are the ways to grow older!
ReplyDeleteWhat did you have to do to win a coconut Cro?
I'm truly smelling corn dogs and pop corn right now after reading this...makes me want to go to the fair. How fun that you had Master Jack to go with, having a child at the carnival makes it ten times more fun!!
ReplyDeletexo J~
Woohoo...what a ride. I can just see the two of you! All the better for being spontaneous and unplanned.
ReplyDeleteA lego store has just opened at Sherway Gardens in Toronto...a whole store dedicated to building bricks. No technology, nothing automated...just simple click-together building blocks. Wonderful!
The dream-like quality of the ferris wheel photo probably takes us all back to those fairs and carnivals, unwinnable games and more than a little wear around the edges. Your quote beneath the header echoes a realization of mine - that we need to be in love with beauty. I may just go and write its name on my palm, outlined in ballpoint ink. Happy to have found you, via Premium T.
ReplyDeleteLove all of this! It sounds so wonderful! And the photos are perfect!
ReplyDeleteJack had a great time! And he loves his book ~ halfway through already!
xo
nicely written vic
ReplyDeletex
Children look at a carnival or fair as pure joy; I remember that feeling of so many years ago for myself, and then for my children and now for my grandchildren. However, the prices have changed quite a bit.
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