XIII
All that I can think about when I view this photograph is the carnival that used to happen every summer in the park behind the house that I grew up in. I remember my grandparents visiting and my grandfather giving me five dollars to spend however I wanted. I would usually blow it all on the darts game or the one where you throw ping pong balls into the little glass bowls to try and win goldfish.
As I got older, my friends and I couldn’t wait for the carnival. We would all get peanut butter milkshakes and french fries with malt vinegar on them and we couldn’t wait for the fireworks on the last night. To us, the carnival meant freedom. It was a week full of nights where we didn’t have our parents around and we could just have fun. We would stay out until they shut everything down and then just hang out in the streets. Nothing in the world was better to us than sitting around laughing or chasing fireflies. We were all still kids then and those things were all that we needed to have fun.
Now that I am older, I don’t really miss the carnival itself. I do however, miss those nights of sitting out and laughing without a care in the world.
