Socialist Thanksgiving Carnival

So I didn't get many pictures of Thanksgiving. This is pretty much it. Which pretty much sums up the weekend anyway. Movie watching, game playing, food eating, nap taking.

I took these pictures on Wednesday afternoon, when an impromptu visit from Aunts Amanda and Linda showed up with warm Thanksgiving wishes. Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies were in demand and I happily obliged our holiday clay-mation marthoners.

Oh, wait , a second picture from the weekend.The next morning the memory card was filled with family pictures taken by Linda, while Amanda played the crazy-make-the-kids-smile-clown in the background. Because of their extraordinary talents we got some pretty dang good pictures. No memory left for the beautiful table and food or the beautiful people that surrounded it.

The food was delicious, the company even moreso, and good times were had by all.

I have to say though that the day after Thankgiving was a day I was reminded about something I am grateful for. A handful of the neighborhood kids decided to throw a socialist carnival in Thanksgiving celebration! How about that!

Knock knock knock on our door Friday afternoon. A graphite scribbled paper was thrust into my face.
CARNIVAL!!!!!!!!!!
Admission - 2 cents Song - 2 cents Wagon Ride - 1 cent Show - 2 cents Games - 1 cent

Decent prices and two and under were free so we decided to go. Since we have this depression on and all, we thought it generous of us to support community fund-raising efforts.

We fished the pennies out of the change jar and donned our windbreaking outerwear, paid our 4 cents admission to the 10-year old Ringmaster and the three of us headed down the hill. Upon arrival we were bombarded with offers of entertainment. We paid for Oliver and Max to have the wagon ride. Then another 2 cents for the song: a boy banging on an ice chest like a drum while the Ringmaster shook a big piece of thick plastic that resembled a overhead flourescent light cover. She said it was thunder. I said where did you get that? She said her backyard.

Turns out the show we paid 2 cents for was just the Ringmaster running around with her big wobbly awkward piece of plastic, shaking it as she chased the others around. Only this time it wasn't thunder, it was a grizzly bear.

Well, the fun stopped pretty soon after that when the big wobbly awkward piece of plastic snapped and broke into three pieces. The grizzly bear just got too grizzly. She announced the show was over. Obviously.

I announced that I had more pennies and that I would pay them for good tricks. I saw some karate moves, some headstands, some really fast pencil rolls down a very fast hill, and quite a few songs: Cheetah girls, Faith Hill and Soldier Boy. Soldier Boy was the best. With the dance moves and all. That boy deserved all the pennies.

But, no, Soldier Boy couldn't have all the pennies even if I did give them to him. All of the participants had been instructed before the carnival by the Ringmaster that all pennies were to go to her and that at the end she would split them all evenly. They were okay with this.

So, when the Ringmaster's Stepdad called from across the street, she and her little sister announced the carnival was done. She sat down and pulled the pennies out of her coat pocket. She divided them into 5 neat piles. Six pennies a piece. Fair and Square. Even Steven.

Those pennies were gold to those little kids. They could hardly contain their excitement. I kind of loved that. I kind of loved the sparkly innocence in their eyes, dreaming of what their wealth would buy them , when in reality they couldn't get something from the bottom row of the 7-11 candy aisle without Mom spotting them an extra four cents.

I became grateful that afternoon for the lingering innocence of childhood. With a world full of noisy toys and electronic gobbeldy gook, we can still have socialist carnivals. We can sing songs and do headstands and find a way to entertain ourselves without the help of something that was bought from a store.

Except for a very large wobbly sheet of plastic. I think that came from a store.