A trip to Childhood

Forgive me while I wax poetic for just a moment, but when was the last time you went to a fair and viewed it with a child's eyes and enthusiasm?

That's exactly what I set out to do this weekend. The lights, the colors, the smells, the "carnies" vying for attention, and the overall excitement of the entire day. It was nothing short of overwhelming and exhilarating, all at the same time. It was incredible.

We fought our way through mid-afternoon crowds, were surrounded by innumberable amounts of people all out to enjoy the same things we were there for, and laughed at the vendors attempting to call out to specific people to capture their attention.

Personally, I was "Hey, lady with the camera!" and as a photographer by trade, that's not a name I'm opposed to answering to. To answer your un-asked question, no, I did not play. As my mother pointed out for me, my only true aim is through a lens. I would have missed those balloons, or plates or basketball hoops; it would have been a whole new reason that I walked away without one of those giant stuffed tigers or a blow-up Spiderman.

We also spent time in the free children's area where we enjoyed a petting zoo, a face-painting booth and an obstacle course.

By the time we made it past the vendors and were eyeballing the rides, I was finally getting into the swing of things. There were so many to choose from!

Did we want to spin in circles until we lost that funnel cake we probably shouldn't have eaten? Did we want to take a more mellow ride in a ferris wheel? Did we want to climb aboard a giant pirate ship that merely rocks back and forth? Or, perhaps, did we want to watch friends climb on up and then regret those decisions?

That last bit is actually what I did do, and I caught some pretty interesting shots of my friends alternating between looking a little green around the gills and overcome with excitement. For me, those reactions are even more fun than the rides themselves.

After the rides (and a brief stint in the life-saving cooling station!) I stuffed myself full with a lemon shake-up and some stereotypical carnival food. That lemon shake-up was delicious. I could probably write an entire artical on the difference between shaken and stirred when dealing with any form of a lemonade. I digress. The food and drink were sweet, salty, fattening and utterly divine.

The red balloon we tied around a wrist and left with was nostalgic, a remembrance of a time gone by. Childhood is sweet, fleeting, and gone long before the importance of those memories can be appreciated.

"If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older."  -- Tom Stoppard