midway and mixed with the sweet scent of cotton candy
being spun, potatoes being fried and the aromatic scent of
onions and green peppers cooked along sausage on an open
grill top.
The atmosphere was festive, invigorating. Deciding
what to do first was foremost in our young minds, as we
wanted to cram as many activities into our day as we could
– our boundaries being both money and time. Curfew was
9:00 p.m. in those days and we knew to be home at least
five minutes before the deadline because whether or not
the local authorities were able to enforce the imposed time
regulation, our parents did. Meandering through the area
where the rides were, we mostly observed from a distance
although occasionally we would go on the Ferris wheel. It
seemed that we always ended up stalled on top, the rocking
motion of the open-bench seat making us dizzier by the
minute while others below were getting off the ride. Once
our turn to disembark came, we vowed again never to repeat
the experience... at least until the next year! How many
times our feet walked the circle of the grounds cannot be
calculated, but after losing money in the arcades, we made
a quick turn by the “girlie shows booths” and visited the
vendors underneath the grandstand where we purchased
items that would never be used but would forever be
remembered. We consumed fried bread dough, cotton
candy, French fries, Lyford’s ice cream on a stick and redglazed candied apples all in a single day, knowing it would
be another year before such an opportunity was presented
again. By the time we left the area, we were tired and had
stomachaches from all that we ate and drank while at the
fair.
Once home, we continued to hear the enthusiastic,
iconic voices of Nate Churchill and Wayne Knight as their
announcements of horse races and other events were carried
by the wind far beyond their immediate broadcast area. At
the end of the weeklong carnival, we stood in the backyard
of my parent’s house and waited expectantly for the
finale ... the fireworks. As darkness overtook twilight, our
unobstructed sky view allowed us to witness the spectacular
shapes and colorful bursts of light ranging from white to
pink, purple and green. With the end of the fair, so had
our summer come to a close. The freedoms that we enjoyed
during this time of relative naiveté, propelled us forward
and the memories that we made would be stored up for our
lifetime review.
Image courtesy T.A.Rector, I.P.Dell’Antonio/NOAO/AURA/NSF
30
SUMMER 2012