Lorraine Says: When I Say It's Time to Go

I often fool myself into believing that if I tell you guys about things I plan on doing, I will hold myself more responsible to them. I've actually planned a whole post where I go through all of my old writing and find all the things I've said "I'll tell you about that later" about and tell you about them. I'm kind of in love with how awful that last sentence is, but that's neither here nor there. 

The point is that I'm going to tell you about some stuff I have to eventually tell you about: 1.) the hockey game I saw with Penny b.) the Dealing With Difficult People seminar I attended and cat.) why repeated consonants makes me want to destroy innocent things. 

For today, though, a story about the fair.

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We all know that getting older means change. I don't look the same or talk the same or think the same way I did when I was 5 or 15. It's an ever present truth, and one that I think about a lot as a 20-something.

I less often think corporate change; that is, the way growing up has changed my family as a whole. The things that fell by the wayside or get buried or forgotten as we all grew up. They would remain mostly forgotten if it weren't for what the wise Mufasa once called 'the circle of life.' I'm pretty sure this is now like the 8th time I've mentioned the Lion King on this blog, but again, not the point.

The circle of life in this case has less to do with eating antelope and more to do with the fact that my niece is letting us re-visit all these childhood customs. Suddenly, there is always chocolate in the goodie drawer again, Christmas has regained life, and on Saturday, my father insisted on taking Gailey-bird to the local fair, another old tradition.

The fair is across the street from my father's job, and when my sister's and I were young, he would come home and tell us as soon as they started assembling the rides. We went nearly every year, rode the same three or four rides, and considered it one of the best things we did with our father.

On Saturday night, Pink, Vyelit and I went to the fair with him after at least 12 years since our last visit. It was in the same spot as it'd always been and all the lights looked the same too. The big difference, I suppose, was that Pink's husband and two children were in tow. Instead of my sister's and I piling into my father's car, Pink, Vyelit, Cheese Cream, Gailey-Bird, Ellie-Bug, Daddy-O and I squeezed into Cheese Cream's Tahoe, car seats, strollers, baby bags and all. 

We said goodbye to my mother, who waved to us from the door. That part remained unchanged. She sent us off with warnings about behavior and safety, always with absolutely no intention of accompanying us. 

On the short four or five block drive down to the lot, we tried explaining to Gailey-bird where we were going.

"Where are we going, Gailey?"

"Somewhere special," she lisped, in her two-year old dialect. "A big park!"

"It's called a faaaaair," Pink explained to her. She sat silently mulling over the new information. 

My dad chuckled. "I remember bringing the girls. Before we ever left the house, I would always tell them, "when I say it's time to go..."

The memory seemed to boil up in each of us. Pink, Vyelit and I all sing-songed, "it's time to go!" We laughed at the memory we forgot we had. 

"And every time," my father finished, "when I said it was time to go, "one more ride daddy! One more please." It never failed."

When we finally found parking and unloaded the children, we were all in high spirits. Gailey-bird was taking in the sight, and proclaiming herself "too little" to ride on the more threatening looking rides. We located a small train for her and my father went off to buy her tickets to ride, like he used to do for us. As he stood in line, Vyelit turned to Cheese and I. 

"Do you remember, though, why we used to be so upset when Dad said it was time to go?"

"Yep," I replied quickly. "If we were here an hour, we were lucky. No games, no food, nothing. We each got a certain number of tickets and that was that. No fooling around." 

"But imagine," she said thoughtfully. "There were three of us. Think of the money he would have to spend for more than an hour." 

"My father was the opposite," Cheese Cream mused. "When he said we were going to the fair, we were going to the fair.We got there as soon as it opened and he wouldn't let us leave until it closed. There were five of us, and we were all daredevils and hungry little bastards. He came prepared to drop at least $200, and he made sure that he milked every cent."

It sounded just like Cheese's father. It fit their family. As it was, my sister's and I were timid, quiet and scaredy cats. A big slide, a Gravitron and a baby-coaster later, we'd probably run out of things to do anyways.

After watching Gailey go around and around (and around) on a train, Cheese Cream decided that we needed to get on something. He passed the kids to grandpa, and we waited in a short line to get on this thing:

You know. It just goes around  fast and it makes you fall into the unfortunate person next to you. I sat down in that chair and I felt 10 again. Cheese cream was sitting next to me and as the ride took off, and I tried to keep myself on my side of the chair and off his lap, we both laughed like maniacs.

The ride stopped, the world spun for just a second longer, and I was still laughing, thinking about when the last time I had just laughed was. Thinking about doing silly things.

After a little more walking and talking, it started to rain. We bundled up the kids and decided to head home before it got worse.

"But, my funnel cake!" Cheese Cream remembered as we headed toward the car.

"Want me to go get it while you guys put the girls in the car?" I asked.

"You would get wet for funnel cake?"

"You're kidding right?"

Obviously, I was more than willing to brave a little rain for deep fried and powdered sugar goodness.

And I did.

Some things never change.

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Share your favorite fair memories and traditions below! Any favorite rides or foods? Any places you used to frequent with your family? Share 'em if you got 'em.

Also, thank you to everyone for your well wishes on my bloggiversary! I love all of your faces.