I Want My Carnies Back!

The draw of funnel cake can make a girl do a lot of things. Luckily, I was able to get some by only hanging out with my mom and niece and nephew for a couple hours at a town carnival. Not a bad gig. These types of carnivals remind me of when I was a kid when every parish would have their own come springtime. And if you were lucky, your parents would take you to more than one. After my Friday night carnival adventure, I've learned :

The face-painting is done really well nowadays.

The cotton candy comes in bags and not twirled on sticks.

The rides actually look safe and like they were made sometime in the past decade. Oh and the ride operators? The "carnies" if you will? They were all of acceptable apparel and hygiene. The stinky bearded cigarette-smoking Tilt-a-Whirl operator of the past no longer exists.

The duck pond will always be my most favorite "game". It requires little more than having a hand to hold the scooper.

I need to ride the bumper cars as soon as this kid pops. I'm sure it will release all my pent-up road rage. Oh, who am I kidding? Pent up? I let my rage fly all day long. But still, they look fun.

Other notes of interest:

Carnival food is expensive.

Gangs of tweens roam the land with no regard for running directly into pregnant ladies.

Related note: 13 year old from the burbs with mohawks are hilarious-looking.

The lines might look really long but actually, it's just the parents and 3 sets of grandparents that are accompanying the one six year old child.

When the pretzel vendor decides to have her 4 year old daughter "run" the register, that makes for a very slow transaction and a line of unhappy customers who can't huff and puff at a 4 year old but can shoot the mother dirty looks.

Port-a-Potties --- No.