Chatty had a marvelous birthday weekend - and thanks to all who sent good wishes!

    Last Saturday night, Chatty was coming home from a birthday party for a friend whose birthday was one day after hers - and noticed that there was a weekend fair at the local community college.

    Chatty just loves these little carnivals - the tinned music, the bright lights, the rides, the carnival food! One of Chatty's first "group dates" was at a carnival such as this...in Arlington, Virginia, when she was 13.

    So, she arrived home with excitement, and asked The Wiz if he would take her over for an hour or so. The Wiz does not particularly enjoy these things, and he was already in his "TV-watching" mode when she got home, but he is a good sport - and it WAS Chatty's birthday weekend - so without a moment's hesitation, he said "Sure - let's go!"

    The first thing we noticed was that it was easy to park up close. Hmmmm. On a Saturday night, too.

    The next thing we noticed was that the midway - a tiny one - was pretty much empty:

    Chatty took this picture and the ones that follow with her cell phone, so apologies for the poor quality, but you will get the idea...



    The two guys standing in the middle of the picture are not, sadly, customers - they are the operators of two of the booths.

    The next thing Chatty noticed was at the "hit the hammer on the plate and ring the bell" booth, where a sign saying "$5" had been replaced with one that advertised the same goodies for less (note the overlay on the sign):



    Still, the kids were having fun, and the lady who ran the booth was extremely patient with the little ones...in fact, there were 4 different stations - one for adults, and three of varying sizes for kids. Here is a pre-teen, trying his luck:



    We watched for quite a bit, and The Wiz marvelled at the total lack of strength and coordination exhibited by all the kids who tried - none of them rang the bell, and they all got impatient, then bored - almost immediately. The Wiz was of the opinion that this was not a good thing...and Chatty wondered aloud if playing on computers for hours instead of playing outside and running around might be part of the problem. But, she doesn't have any kids of her own (though The Wiz has a grown son, with two sons of his own - making Chatty twice a grandmother - just call her "Mimi"!), so she has no right to judge - especially that age group.

    "The Hammer" (known in Chatty's misspent youth as "The Vomit Comet") was the most popular and busy of the rides, especially among the 13-18 set, but even it had to go with each of the two cars half-empty each time, at least while we were watching:






    The booth where The Wiz has been known to win Chatty LOTS of prizes at various County Fairs was bereft of customers when we first passed by:



    But on our second go-around, some people were there:


    
    And you just KNOW that mom and dad were going to shoot their water pistols VEEERRRY slowly, so that their little boy would win! Chatty hopes that dad took him to the midway later, and, showing his prowess with the rifle (or the baseball, or the basketball), won his son another prize...because you just know it was hard for Dad to hold back on shooting that water pistol, even it it WAS so his son could win!

    Chatty really wanted to ride on this one, but The Wiz was not enthusiastic about being swung around and around and back and forth so soon after dinner, and Chatty, having just consumed her favorite carnival food - a  giant hot pretzel with mustard - had to admit that his argument had merit (oh, how hard it is to admit that Chatty is no longer a teenager, and has to consider things like that):



    The operator would run The Tornado if he could get even three people to ride - Chatty counted.

    The merry-go-round was very popular with the little kids (Chatty wished she could have found a stray kid to take on the ride - the way she used to do when she wanted to go to "little kid" movies, but felt silly going on her own - luckily, she has grandchildren now!), but was still only half full each time it started:



    All of this emptiness on a Saturday night at a carnival gave Chatty pause. It became clearer, perhaps, when she and The Wiz wandered by the ticket booth (the only one - that's how small this carnival was) and read the "fuel surcharge" notice.

    Each ticket was $1.50, and there was a fuel surcharge for buying more than one ticket that, when added, meant there was no discount for buying several tickets. And, most of the rides cost 3 or 4 tickets. 

    Yes.

    Those are State Fair prices, folks!

    The piddling ferris wheel was 4 tickets. With no discount for buying multiple tickets, that means it would have cost Chatty and The Wiz  ELEVEN DOLLARS to ride the ferris wheel. Did Chatty mention it was a PIDDLING ferris wheel???

    The Tornado was also 4 tickets. The merry-go-round was 3 tickets.

    The food was very expensive, as it always is.  

    The Wiz - who would probably have won at the "shooting pool" game - refused to pay the "3 bucks for 1 shot" price, and Chatty doesn't blame him! Nobody else was buying in, either:



    The lack of people, the outrageous prices, the "fuel surcharge"...all got Chatty to thinking.

    She wonders what it would be like to travel from town to town, moving these huge rides on their giant trucks - setting them up for 3 days, working from 10 AM to midnight, then tearing them down, traveling to the next town, and doing it all over again a few days later - all while living in a trailer and watching fuel prices rise every time you gassed up those behemoths. Paying the insurance against accidents. Raising your family on the road, watching food prices go up - again - every time you turned around. Having to post signs adding a fuel surcharge to the already high price of the tickets, because that's the only way you can make a small profit - or, more likely, break even.

    These carnivals are a vibrant part of Chatty's memories - the thrill of seeing a small fair crop up in a parking lot near her - rushing over to ride the rides, try for prizes, eat the food, and giggle with her friends...

    Embrace them while you can, folks - despite the high prices - because Chatty has a feeling these local joy-bringers may soon be a distant memory...