A quote: “I am not unaware of the saying that more tears have been shed over wishes granted than wishes denied.” ~~ Aung San Suu Kyi
I’ll start with a story …
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It’s hot. It’s dusty. There’s the smell of the barns, the calls of cow and horse. Smells that grab like frying, sweet dough and smokers full of brisket and pork shoulder.
Cruel August, but it has its moments. When people went to the fair to experience down-on-the-farm for a few hours. Eat funnel cake and gawk at prize winning quilts and canned vegetables.
It’s that smell of frying that greets me and floods my memories as I unpack the wagon … including salvaged jars and sugar missed on earlier city hunts.
Pity. I liked the Ferris wheel lights the most.
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Now, it’s your turn.
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. featured image, cropped, Adobe Stock standard license.
GWB says: The annual voting carnival was finally set up. Every ride you rode or game you played counted for a vote. The folks on the ballot were over in the Freak Show, if you weren’t already sure for whom you would vote. (And, of course, you had incentive to go listen and watch, anyway, as it was one more chit to weigh in for your chosen candidate.) And the voting booth was just on the other side of the hall of mirrors/horror house. All you had to do was collect your colored chits (based on your desired vote) at the various games and rides (and the Freak Show!) of the carnival, then make your way through to the ballot boxes. Don’t drop your votes when they scare you in the House of Horrors! BWAHAHAHA!!!
And of course, no one believed the circus folks would ever fool around with the votes. After all, they were bonded. And, of course, everyone knows that carneys are famously trustworthy. Right? Jim, are you there? Did you get lost in here, Jim? Where’s the exit?
Lewis says: Obviously, GWB, you’re not a word counter, never have been, probably never will be, but I must say, this was a good one today! Nice job! Thanks for that! BWAHAHAHA!!!
Lewis says: Be careful what you wish for was never far from my mind as the day began to lighten around us. The carnival was quiet, the rides shut down, nobody on site for sure but me and thee. It would vanish the minute the sun struck the ferris wheel, I had my photos from the night before. We were waiting, as soon as it disappeared we could make our way back to the settlement. Another history lesson for the little ones, I only wish I had been able to capture smells, feels, and tastes! Maybe that would come back in time.
Cameron says: My grandfather started this carnival and he ran it with a simple idea: “Everyone is welcome.”
So when several races arrived here one morning, they were treated just as anyone else. The chief ambassador was quite surprised that we would be so friendly. My grandfather’s idea is apparently seen as civilized thinking and we passed some kind of test. The nice part is that having them show up has made us a lot of money and allowed us to modernize.
And that’s why when you come to our fair, you will see aliens. Just mind your manners and enjoy your time.
As I saw the TV coverage of the midway at the Missouri State Fair and recalled the delight of my own childhood visits to county and state fairs, I kept thinking about Tolkien’s comment that, for Men, a reward can be worse than a punishment. He was of course referring to Numenor, which was supposed to be a blessing for those Men who’d fought alongside the Noldor in the war against Morgoth, but ended up only making them discontent and hungry for what they couldn’t have.
But in a way he was prescient of our current situation, here on the left side of the Pond. We’d won the Cold War, and we’d been so delighted to have the peace dividend. But we failed to learn the lessons, and here we are in a civil war that looks nothing like the Blue and the Gray, nothing like the Cavaliers and the Roundheads or any other civil war in history. No armies facing off in battle, but continual little skirmishes by squad-level units, hitting fast and vanishing back into the countryside of this vast land.
I’m not sure how many people here in Missouri are part of the Sharp Resistance at one level or another. I may have just been a supply clerk in Vietnam, but I understand the importance of opsec. As far as everyone in the area knows, I run a campground with cabins on the shores of Lake of the Ozarks. When I get a special guest, I don’t ask questions, just make sure they can get in and out without being noticed. And I wonder what we could’ve done differently in those halcyon years, to make sure that “the experiments were wrong but the people touched by them are innocent victims” didn’t turn into “these tainted products of Frankenstein science must be kept in their place.”
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