Sunday, September 4, 2011

Summers End

"Here you go, you each can go on eight rides." I say as I tear along the perforated edges of the little green ride tickets. All three kids are excited to finally get a chance to go on a few rides at the fair. We are at the Haddam Neck Fair in Haddam Connecticut, as part of our day trip visiting friends. My son, our friends daughter (one of his oldest friends) and her cousin choose the Giant Slide as their first ride. They climb the stairs, place their potato sacks on the slide and in unison begin to race down. Next is the Gravitron, a ride the girls are thrilled to try and my son not so much. "I don't like rides that spin around fast, it makes me dizzy and makes my head hurt." My son explains while the girls race in to the dark cauldron of the ride. A few minutes pass as we watch the ride spin at top speed and screams are heard coming from the inside. The ride slows to a stop and the girls rush out."Oh you got to try that, the ride spins and then the floor drops out and you are pinned to the wall and you can't move!" The girls scream as one. 


The Fair is not your typical traveling carnival set up in some mall parking lot for the weekend. This fair was as Americana as it gets. Upon arriving at the fair our first stop was to visit the barn where the hen and rooster competition was taking place. Rows and rows of cages each one holding primed and proper chickens, ducks and even rabbits, all on their best behavior and win a blue ribbon to show off back home. After the hen pageant, we head over to the next barn, where the big boys and girls are set to show off their goods. The cows are doing whatever cows do, some are eating, some are sleeping and some are standing, not a very animated group, but all sporting their best looks, clean and groomed. Next are the goat and sheep pens, each pen occupied by the mischievous animals, climbing over each other for optimal begging angles. After viewing the show animals, we pass through the collection of food trailers, all the cheese steaks, funnel cake and bloomin' onions your digestive tract can handle and walk through a series of booths, selling stuff. The kids are zig-zagging from booth to booth, trying on sunglasses and watching girls get feathers weaved into their hair. 


The truck pull was the main event at the carnival today. A stable of hard core puckups, matte black with fat tires and engines protruding out of the hoods. The thunder escaping the exhaust pipes fills the air with the sound of a thousand horses as the truck pulls the giant sled down the dirt track for a full pull. The crowd cheers and we decide we saw enough and head back to the carnival grounds. 


The sky is now a deep blue as the kids decide on their last ride of the day, the swings. I notice I have enough tickets in my hand to take my wife on the Ferris Wheel. We sit in the rocking bench, as the wheel rotates around and stops at the very top to load on more riders. My wife and I overlook the fairgrounds, the neon glow of the rides, the flashing lights of the game booths, the smoke billowing from the food trailers, and the distant sound of monster trucks, the perfect fair to end a summer day. 

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