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A quote: “Nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains.” ~~ Diane Ackerman
I’ll start with a story …
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Six months, his doctor said. If you’re lucky.
So as he drove past the fairgrounds, he turned his car into the parking lot, purchased a long ribbon of tickets and looked for the first funnel cake stand he could find.
The roller coaster caught his eye. Why not? Nothing to lose. Old carny ride that rattled and shook and the last dip made him squeeze his eyes shut tight until it rolled to a stop.
He went to step out and noticed an absence of pain and an abundance of clothing.
“Hurry up, kid. People are waiting” yelled the operator.
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Now, it’s your turn.
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. featured image, cropped, Adobe Stock standard license.
Cameron says: “So you came to New America with a fortune?” he asked.
“I did all right,” I answered.
“And you took that money and invested it in a carnival. A chunk of that money went into repairs and upgrades. And from what I understand, you took a loss for a few years.”
“You’ve done your research.”
“OK, so why? You could have retired.”
I smiled as the coaster whipped around the curve to the delighted screams of children. “Because retirement can be boring,” I replied. “And they shut down the carnivals in Old America. Had to show the kids some fun.”
Growing up on a farm in northern Minnesota, I didn’t have a whole lot of diversions, other than the ones I made myself. So it wasn’t surprising that the county fair was always one of the highlights of my summer, even after school gave me plenty to keep busy the rest of the year.
I still remember the sights, the sounds, the smells. Sometimes I’d get to take a friend with me on Kids’ Day, when the rides ran all day long and were half-price before 6PM. By the middle grades we were given the run of the fair, with directions on where to meet at day’s end.
I loved walking through the swine and cattle barns, but my friends were all town girls, so the only livestock they wanted to see was the horses. So we’d soon be back to do some more rides. One year we did three rounds on the Tilt-a-Whirl, and then spent the rest of the day singing “Supercalifragilistic” over and over, just because that was what they had been playing on that ride.
By the time I was in jr. high, trips to the county fair tended to be a lot more work. I was active enough in 4H that I spent a lot of time getting projects judged, or working in the food stand. High school meant FFA, and even if I hadn’t been busy with showing and judging those projects, that was about the time there were some really scary accidents at fairgrounds midways around the country. After that, my folks didn’t want us taking the risk of going on rides that were hauled all over the country by people of uncertain reliability.
Sometimes I miss those carefree days of my childhood visits to the fair. But I wouldn’t trade being head of Agriculture at a lunar settlement for any number of free tickets to a county fair back on Earth.
Navig8r says: “You kiddos really enjoyed that coaster.”
“We sure did, Joe.”
“Lot of elbow grease, but me and the boys from the Lion’s Club brought it back from a heap of rust. Build it and they’ll come.”
Then a stroke put Joe in the nursing home. The coaster looked good in fresh paint, but they never came. It was back to rust now.
“Oughta place an ad and get a crew to do the same for the old drive-in theater.”
“Nice thought.”
I forgot to remind him that the drive-in is now a subdivision and the Herald shuttered sixteen years ago.
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