I love watching the faces of the three-year-olds at the carnival. They’re on the slowest ride in the place and you’d think it was the most thrilling thing on earth. They grin from ear to ear! I saw plenty of them this week at the Amissville Fireman’s Carnival. Watching them was entertainment in and of itself!

I still grin like an idiot riding on the Octopus. I’ve loved carnival rides all my life! The more spinning the better! You’d think a grown person would have gotten beyond that. Not me.

Part of that three-year-old grin is the still innate belief that you’re indestructible. Typically that lasts through your teenage years and maybe into your 20s. For me, it lasted a lot longer. I think I still only half believe that the “no one gets out of this alive” quote includes me. Blame it on my parents. Heaven knows they knew plenty of economic fear. But there never seemed to be a fear of trying new things, of embarking on adventures or throwing yourself wholeheartedly into any endeavor. I hope the same is true for the next generation!

So carnival rides were always a thrill. But there came a day when something changed. And while part of it may have been a realization of my own mortality; a bigger part was a realization that I was riding on a machine and they break all the time! It was probably after I bought my first, very old, car, and was responsible for maintaining something mechanical. Now that I’ve also owned houses and, heaven help me, lawnmowers, it’s a wonder I’m not terrified of all mechanical things!

This was really brought home to me about ten years ago when I was on that ride that’s basically a roller coaster in the form of a loop. And at some point they leave you at the top of the loop, suspended upside down. They leave you up there for a really, really long time! This is when you start to notice the rust on the bolts and the creaking of aging machinery. And have I mentioned that the seat belt in my car holds me in more firmly than that single bar across my middle?  Why is it that you need two straps across your body, horizontally and diagonally, in a car that’s meant to stay right side up on the ground, but suspended hundreds of feet above the ground, upside down I only needed that dinky little bar?! And where’s my airbag? Suddenly I was sure I was going to die an untimely and terrifying death!

Obviously, I made it down off that ride. And it didn’t cure me of rides, although it did cure me of that particular ride! And as I get a little older and I realize I am here on earth for a finite amount of time, carnival rides once again seem like a good thing. After all, I might as well have fun in the time I’ve got!

If you missed all the fun at this week’s fireman’s carnival, there are more coming up, around Rappahannock county and the larger area. You can live dangerously by eating the cotton candy and rotting your teeth out. You can lose your retirement money at the carnival games. Or you can get on that upside down roller coaster thing! If you’re looking for me I’ll be the grinning idiot on the Octopus!