It's Tulip Time in Holland. One of the newest attractions in our fair city is the carnival that is set up in the civic center parking lot for the duration of the festival. Isaiah is attracted by the bright lights and the rides. While I enjoy the bright lights, I have outgrown the rides, but there is still a fascination that has lingered since childhood. That fascination is the carnie.
It began as a youngster. My mom would usually work the ticket office at the Manistee County Fair. This entitled members of her family, free passes into the fair and rides from open to close. The smells of the fried food, cotton candy, tantalized my nose, while the smell of the hay mixed with livestock made it wrinkle in distaste. The hawkers at their win a stuffed animal booths, never intrigued me much, but the ride attendant, now he was amazing. With cigarette dangling from his lips, tanned skin from hours standing in dusty, sun-drenched fairgrounds, he would usher me on to the "Scrambler" with great decorum, seeing after my safety by pulling on straps and doors to be sure they were latched properly. With a wink, he'd slap my car and croon "Hold on Sweetheart!" It was enough to make a prepubescent girl swoon. He was a gypsy with bandana in his hair, and strange markings of ink upon his arm.
Tonight I watched my husband climb aboard the "Super Shot". He waved and smiled at Isaiah and I as he was slowly raised above rooftops, only to be suddenly dropped from above with a creak and a whoosh. I was struck by his handsome features, and the realization came to me, that I married a man who looks like one of my handsome carnie/gypsies. This made me smile as we walked away, bright lights turning off one by one behind us. In the cool, spring air we held hands, while our little boy danced on the sidewalk before us with sticky hands and a cotton candy smile.
About Me
- tomirose
- I'm a wife of a wonderful man, mom to three awesome children. I like to laugh, encourage, and I would love to write. I think community is a wonderful thing, and I'd like people to be less cynical about church, not THE church, but the institution that we call the church. I think soul patches, piercings and tattoos are kinda cool; attitudes are not. Sometimes I lie in bed and think about weird things.. like why I like the taste of bubblemint gum, but despise the taste of our youngest son's bubblemint flavored toothpaste, or if our older children have already met their future spouses, how amazing it is that I've been married to the same man for thirty-two years, and why dryer lint looks the way it does. I hate having cold feet, being too hot, and stubbing my pinkie toe. I like to read pretty much anything but angsty poetry, well no I lied..not about the angsty poetry, but I don't much like to read biographies either. Laundry is the bane of my existence, along with cleaning out the refrigerator, and just plain cleaning.
2 comments:
wow- you're right...you SO married a carnie!!
but he doesn't smell of cabbage. so there's that.
hope tulip time was fan-freekin-tastic.
have isaiah pick a kingsblood or queen-of-night for me. i think i'm worth the fine.
did you know that:
Tulips must be planted in the late fall or in early winter
You can grow tulips under deciduous trees where it's too shady for bloom later
Plant food should be applied above the bulbs-but not where it can touch them-and be well watered in
Tulips do best in a loose, well-drained soil
You can increase your plantings by lifting and dividing original bulbs when out of bloom
If you water them early when buds are rising, you'll get larger blooms, and taller stems?
you're welcome.
The tulip festival in Ottawa, Ontario, is worth seeing, and not as far away as Holland.
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