TAKE ME TO THE FAIR

Another beautiful morning on my porch to make up for last night. And I just remembered something I noticed last night, did you? The moon was about three quarters, enough that you could see the "face". Now am I nuts (shut up) or does Mr. Moon usually look down on us? Last night it appeared that he was looking up. When I wrote before about that sad and startled look that I see on "his face", nobody commented one way or another. Am I the only one who sees this? It wouldn't be the first time that I perceived something that no one else on the face of the earth saw or felt. So if I'm all alone on this, well, c'est la vie.

I'm in the mood for a carnival. Summer isn't summer without at least one carnival or fair. I need my cotton candy fix. And if I don't get a French Waffle soon, I may curl up and die. There is something aboot the sawdust and the lights on the rides at night and the smells and sounds of a carnival that just make me so damn excited.

The town I grew up in had a huge County Fair every year. When I was small the train would bring the animals (elephants, tigers, etc.) and the bigger rides to town on a Sunday afternoon. Monday night there would be an elaborate parade heralding the arrival of the Fair. I'm talking hours and hours of bands, clowns, firetrucks, Shriners in miniature cars or on motorcycles or just purposefully striding down the street with their sabres. I would get chills from the sounds of the drumbeats or the firetruck sirens. If you yelled just right at the firemen, they would shower you with candy. And there was that rush of adreneline when you would dart out into the street to scoop up that stray piece of caramel. My grandmother's house was on the parade route which was an obvious advantage. We would set up our lawn chairs in front of the house and place our blankets on the curb early in the day to insure a good vantage point for watching. It was great too, because you could race inside to pee and race back out and not miss more than a band or a float. When we were really small, we would take our pajamas to Gram's and bathe and get ready for bed because 9 chances out of 10, by the time the parade was over, some of us would be falling asleep. And parade traffic afterward was always phenomenol. It might take an hour or more to get back home which was in actuality six or seven blocks away. When I got to be in my teens, it was a big deal to go to the park (where the Fair was set up) after the parade. All the firemen from counties all around who were in town (and were probably drunk...) would be there, as well as some of the bands that weren't from high schools which got herded back on the big yellow buses from whence they came. So the park would be crowded as heck and way more fun.

I'm having so much fun writing this that I may follow up later. Don't want to make this post too long. Have a good day :-)

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351. When all of your Cracker Jacks have melted into one big Jack.