This past weekend was our little burg's summer carnival. We used to have a pretty big, city-sponsored event, but even Downers Grove is broke so it was cancelled. The Rotary Club stepped in to sponsor a much smaller, scaled-back "festival" that consisted of a handful of rides and some food trailers. Our old fest used to get bands like Foghat and Molly Hatchet. Hey, at least I've heard of them. The new fest's headliner was a U2 cover band. It doesn't count if you've only heard of the band that they're covering.
Because the Rotarians were running the show, the row of card tables that you had to pass to get to the rides was dominated by more conservative organizations than before. There were church preschools and Gideons handing out Bibles. One woman thrust a pamphlet at me and asked if I was interested in Christian counseling. Was it the bald spots or the shoulder twitch that gave me away?
Because the Rotarians were running the show, the row of card tables that you had to pass to get to the rides was dominated by more conservative organizations than before. There were church preschools and Gideons handing out Bibles. One woman thrust a pamphlet at me and asked if I was interested in Christian counseling. Was it the bald spots or the shoulder twitch that gave me away? 
Funnel cake or curly fries: WWJD?
It was hotter 'n balls out. They had misters to cool you down, and as soon Audrey realized that they had a function other than to visually stim on it was hard to tear her away. But tear her away I had to because I had made the unfortunate mistake of purchasing a $25 sheet of tickets not realizing that we were going to have had our fill after about 15 minutes. So I had to force Audrey to go on rides. Just as an aside, what is it about those sheets of tickets that makes you forget how to do basic math? It's 3 tickets to ride the ferris wheel, and you think "Well, gee, that seems reasonable." Meanwhile, you've gotten 22 tickets for $25, and even if you can't figure that out to the penny, you know that it's more than a buck a ticket. The two of us riding the ferris wheel twice came to $13.64. Oh well, it was the only breeze to be had so it might have been worth it.
Audrey prostrate on a flying elephant
We used all but 3 tickets. I'll keep those for my scrapbook, along with my New Testaments and family therapy brochure. You never know when I might need them.
Oh crud, I never did the math on the tickets before.
ReplyDeleteThe ferris wheel sounds fun, but The Boy won't be taking the trip any time soon. I don't trust him not to jump the last three steps off the porch so the ferris wheel is out of the question.
ps. I hate that I know who Foghat and Molly Hatchett are.
You make me laugh so hard with every post. We had a very similar experience at a local carnival. Photos and general griping to be found here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amandabroadfoot.com/A-few-things-Mama-learned-during-Spring-Break
On that day, Billy wanted to spend the entire time watching the way-past-their-sell-date hot dogs rotate in that revolting contraption in the open window of the hot dog van. We ended up throwing about $5 in tickets away as there were only two rides they'd let me go on with him, and as I mention in the link above, "Carnies don't care about autism."
@j*: If I had planned the fest, I would have had a Foghat cover band...no one would have known the difference.
ReplyDelete@Amanda: I typically have a soft spot for carnies but I should probably rethink that. I could have probably saved alot of $ if there had been a rotating hot dog cooker at our carnival.
I don't know about the curly fries or funnel cakes... but I hope Jesus would use the phrase hotter 'n balls.
ReplyDeleteWe always get hosed on tickets as my kid is too much of a pu**y to ride them... we usually give the extras to a family waiting at the ticket counter.
Haha! I hope you had some fun! While we visited Chicago a couple of years ago, we went to a big Winter festival at the Navy Pier. It was awful! I think we spent about over $75 just to wait almost an hour to ride a ferris wheel. We had to leave after that! LOL! At least no one tried to hand us any religious literature.
ReplyDeleteOh my
ReplyDeleteYOU made me LOL at your ending !
and that was a scaled-back event? What does a full-scale event look like?
ReplyDeleteI Love Funnel cakes.
@tulpen: If I remember correctly, Jesus had a pretty high tolerance for discomfort, so probably not.
ReplyDeleteBloomingdale completely cancelled their event this year. I saw Foghat there a few years back! lol Once I went to a Molly Hatchett concert, stood by the speakers and was deaf for days.
ReplyDeleteI would so eat a funnel cake...
Oh that looks like so much fun! We had something similar to that over that weekend. We had a ball, but yah, it was SO hot :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting me on potluck friday. It's great to meet you, now I'm a follower.
"Rotarians" - Is that what they're called? LMAO!!
ReplyDeleteHey, you had a nice (ok it was hot) day out with your daughter! I loved going to carnivals with my kids. I miss those days! Yeah, it does get expensive. Those tickets are definitely a mind trick!
You have such a fun style! Thank you so much for visiting my blogoir last week on my SITS day. I really appreciated all of the wonderful comments!
ReplyDeleteIt looks like a good time but that heat would have really gotten to me. I'm finding it hard to leave the house anymore.
ReplyDeleteAnd I vote for funnel cake!
Visiting from SITS!