Carnival Rides

Every year during the hottest week in July,

a celebration takes place in our little town.

Four city blocks of our brick lined main street is blocked off,

then carnival rides, games and food vendors are moved in.

I look out my window at work where I see the little kids

sitting on courthouse lawn waiting for the rides to start for the day.

I can see mothers pushing strollers up and down the street

looking for bargains at the sidewalk sales of local merchants.

Even though I can never find a bargain I can't live without.

There are is always all kinds of entertainment for all ages,

the local dance school has a performance one evening, street dances,

singing contests, and always a beer garden or two.

The parade is held Saturday morning and lots of tootsie rolls are given away.

My youngest isn't found of the parade clown,

since the year he tried to sit down on her lap

while she watched the parade.

To this day she doesn't care for clowns.

Class reunions, softball tournaments and family reunions

are taking place this week also.

So the town is brimming with people.

There is always a good variety of foods to choose from: barbecue, Greek gyros,

Indian tacos, corn on the cob, pizza by slice and funnel cakes.

My girls were excited to attend this year,

as we out of town last year during that time.

My oldest immediately found her friends she hasn’t seen for several weeks.

Which is the curse of being a country kid and not a city slicker.

You don’t see your school friends on a daily or even a weekly basis.

She just text messages them so they know she is still alive.

She went off with them and reemerged just in time to go home.

So we were left with my youngest and her friend

to ride the carnival rides with.

I snapped a couple of photos with my cell phone,

so the picture quality is what it is.

When I was younger I didn't like to ride "the Sizzler"

It would start out real slow

then turn a corner and jerk you around the other way

My evil older sisters would always have me sit on the outside.

So when we jerked around they would slide into me,

and squish me for the rest of the ride.

Then they would take me on the tilt-a-whirl,

where they would spin it until I would turn green.