The Fair - Continued

He's growing so fast. This slide occupied him for an hour last year, and he went on it over and over, his little face growing red with the strenuous activity. This year, a few times was enough to satisfy him, and he yearned for the rides for which he was not yet tall enough. Maybe next year, I comforted him, all the while happy that he was not yet tall enough to spin crazily in the air.

As to the rest of the people at the fair, I can only say that if you need to develop characters for writing a book, or just like people watching, the fair is your place. I peered at the faces of some of the younger fair ride operators and wondered how they got there. Was their face on a poster of missing kids at StuffMart? What landed these people to life on the road, living in a trailer, pushing red buttons to start a ride? Most seemed kind, yet very bored.

As the evening wore on, crowds of teens began to form and the blaring music began to get to me. Disappointed with the lack of entries in the arts and crafts, almost no entries in the agricultural division, and no other exhibits to view, we decided we'd seen enough.

You may ask why we bothered to attend? Well, to see Anna's art exhibited - taking first place in five categories in the junior division.! William also entered a painted African mask, which also took first place in the "other painted object" category.

Where's My Sense of Adventure?

Somewhere along the way, I changed. Well into my thirties, roller coasters couldn't go fast enough and spinning rides caused me to laugh continuously. This was, of course, in times before coasters could pull G forces sufficient to get you away from the Earth's atmosphere and on your way to the moon. Today's roller coasters no longer roll or coast, rather they test the outer limits of the endurance of the human body.

Sometime after the birth of my daughters, I noticed that spinning rides made me quite queasy, and I was ashamed of my new found weakness. My sense of balance or something changed, and I no longer enjoyed being centrifuged to a wall of a circular room with a floor that dropped away. Rather, I pondered while spinning around if I threw up if it would just drop to the floor, come back on my own face, or worse yet, hit the person across from me.

Sadly, I shake my head when my son asks me to take him on fair rides, and send my older daughter to ride with him. I stand below and pray that the "carnies" put the ride together well and had taken all their medication that day. You think I over-react?

While at this particular county fair, we stood in line to ride a "kiddie" roller coaster in which a sea serpent train traversed a tubular track. The ride operator walked over to a track support and as I watched, he hand tightened a nut on a bolt that had come loose.

"Alright, we're not going to be riding this ride," I told the boy as I dragged him away. "How about the nice slide?"

"Why can't I ride this ride. Why?"

I checked back later, and the nut was again at the end of the 3 inch bolt, ready to fall out. Several moms looked in panic at their kids on the ride as I pointed out the bolt to the kids. "See, this ride is still falling apart. You can't ride it." To my knowledge, the ride is still operating with the man still hand tightening the bolt when he thinks of it.

I bravely climbed aboard the Ferris wheel, figuring it doesn't really spin and I can still handle drops, just not spins. Sitting high in the air, I noticed that large cables hold it together, and I thought of the girl that had her feet severed at a local amusement park on a ride when a cable broke. A ride that my girls rode two $^&$%& weeks before the accident! I did manage to finish my ride and keep my lunch down.

Not so two poor souls that will forever remember the summer they, after a ride, threw up in front of their girlfriends. Not cool. Two young teen boys (at least I think they were both boys, the jury is still out on one of them) could not take the spinning either. Perhaps it's not just a sign of my aging. Perhaps it is a sign of un-coolness.

More on the county fair tomorrow.