Today is Balloon
Festival day and I’m excited. Hopefully the weather holds off. I can deal with
clouds, but if it actually rains, it’s going to be miserable. My days of
standing in the rain to watch a concert are LONG gone! Can’t recall being happy
about it even when I was a teenager. Big & Rich are known to put on a great
show, so maybe it will be worth it. My hubby scored a parking pass, so we’ll be
able to pack a cooler for easy access to food and we’ll be able to leave our
chairs in the car and just go get them before the concert starts instead of
having to carry them around all day, which will be nice.
It’s funny, every
time we go to the Balloon Festival; there is some kind of extreme weather. I
remember the summer of ’95, it was so hot and my daughter was just an infant in
the stroller, I kept wetting down dribble diapers and laying them over her to
try to keep her cool. It was miserable. I went with friends and we got separated.
I couldn’t find them for hours or I would have gotten the baby out of the
oppressive heat.
The last time we
went, we were there helping out my nephews’ boy scout troop’s food stand (yes,
I wrote that correctly, I had two nephews in the same troop). The day was going
great, but then a wicked storm blew through. Tents were knocked over, people
were hurt by flying debris, it was scary. There is nowhere to hide out in the
middle of a huge field. I’m definitely saying a prayer before we leave so that
we don’t run into anything too terrible today.
I only have 5,400
words to go for NaNoWriMo, but I don’t know how many I’ll actually get down
today before we have to leave. I still have sandwiches to make, and snacks and
drinks to pack. OK, enough chatting or I won’t get any words down. Have a great day!
Your Last Challenge was:
The fair’s in town.
It’s that time of year again, the
annual town fair. This was always a major event for our sleepy little town, and
although it still draws a crowd, it’s nothing like it used to be.
Originally the fair was held at a local
Catholic Church’s field. There was a pie eating contests, funnel cake and all
the other things you would find at a country fair. There was always someone you
knew flipping burgers or handing you a Ping-Pong ball to throw into a fish bowl
to win a goldfish. You knew the kids who were singing in the band and you were
there to cheer them on at their first paying gig. I think they got twenty bucks
and a free burger and soda. The church ladies had a baked goods stand where you
could get the most wonderful chocolate chip cookies or a brownie for a quarter,
and the biggest draw at the dunking booth was when one of the most loved
priests, Father Stan, was sitting on the platform.
When we outgrew the church field, the
fair was moved to the fire company field in the center of town. The dunking
booth and the funnel cakes followed, but the rides got bigger and there were
more commercial games. Our town fair had turned into the town carnival,
complete with carnies and all, but for one week out of the year, it was still
the place to be. It was the place to meet up with friends who you hadn’t seen
since school let out in June. Later it was the place to see friends you hadn’t
seen since graduation.
Eventually we outgrew the firehouse as
well and now the town fair is held in the local Lowes parking lot. It’s funny,
now we have all this room, but the appeal of the fair just isn’t there anymore.
Everything is commercial now, the rides, the games and even the food.
Occasionally you bump into a familiar face, but it doesn’t happen often. It’s
sad really. Perhaps we should think about going back to the way things used to
be when the fair was at the church.
Your
Next Challenge is:
Write a story containing these three words (blame my
daughter): Taco, Cactus, Goldfish
You have 10 minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong,
just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count and NO ONE is allowed to
criticize what someone else has written. Go.
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