Speaking of being grossed out on purpose, there was an auto repair / body shop across the street from our house - Herb's Collision. There were junk cars around, some of which you can tell were in accidents. We (Dennis and I and various friends) kept our eyes peeled for any new accidents brought in and we would go over during non-business hours to check them over for blood and guts. I don’t recall finding any guts, but there were often blood stains inside the twisted wreckage, sometimes quite a bit if it was a particularly bad accident.
Kids are strange. It’s definitely not something I would be interested in now.
The Fair
We went to the Fair every year, which I only knew as the “Fair” or the “Palmyra Fair”. I was much older when I discovered it’s actually the Wayne County Fair. Regardless of what anyone called it, it was a magical week of games, food, fun, and friends each year. It not only had the usual midway games, rides, and food, but there were a wide variety of agricultural displays (cows, goats, sheep, rabbits, chickens, roosters, guinea pigs, and what-not to represent the domesticated animal kingdom of Wayne County, and a host of plant life as well – vegetables, flowers, and such). There were also a couple commercial buildings with displays varying from farming equipment to the Sheriff’s Department with horrendous photographs of the tragic and bloody results of drinking and driving. We, as kids, always checked those out to see if there were any new horrendous photographs from the previous year so we could be grossed out anew.
I usually had a little bit of money saved up for the Fair, but ended up leaning much on the generosity of my parents (or older sibling) to fund my fun at the Fair. There was (and still is) a grandstand in front of a certain section of the racetrack that encircled the infield parking area. From said grandstand you watch such things as the tractor pull and the demolition derby. But, as it cost extra to enter the grandstand area, we never did. Speaking of cost, I remember the main entrance fee was always an odd amount. It wasn’t like $1 or even $1.50, it was something like 95¢ or $1.15.
I went to the Fair recently. It seemed ridiculously small (entrance fee was $6 and the food was ridiculously overpriced). Downright rinky-dink. I don’t think it was much bigger when I was a kid, though it probably has shrunk a bit since then. Back then the horse barn seemed like a long ways away, which, I suppose, is the reason I rarely visited the horse barn. That and horses were intimidating to me as a little kid. It’s actually nearby. Perspectives are different for kids.
I did try a sugar waffle during my recent visit, which tasted just I remember from when I was a kid – delicious. The taffy was a bit of a disappointment because back in the day there was a machine pulling the taffy. It was mesmerizing to watch. I don’t rightly recall, but I think that before the machine a couple people would do the taffy pulling by hand.
I remember one evening in particular that we as a family attended (including my parents). It was just a bit on the chilly side, weather-wise, and my parents made me wear a cardigan sweater to protect my health and well-being against the ravages of a somewhat chilly evening in late August. I felt SO ridiculous in that sweater and prayed to all the powers that be that I wouldn’t run into any of my friends. Well, as fate would have it, I did come across my friend Sam who was dressed in a fabulously cool cowboy outfit, as he was involved in the horses and horse show. I was miserable that entire evening and to this day I blame the scars I still bear on my parents and that accursed cardigan sweater.
I usually had a little bit of money saved up for the Fair, but ended up leaning much on the generosity of my parents (or older sibling) to fund my fun at the Fair. There was (and still is) a grandstand in front of a certain section of the racetrack that encircled the infield parking area. From said grandstand you watch such things as the tractor pull and the demolition derby. But, as it cost extra to enter the grandstand area, we never did. Speaking of cost, I remember the main entrance fee was always an odd amount. It wasn’t like $1 or even $1.50, it was something like 95¢ or $1.15.
I went to the Fair recently. It seemed ridiculously small (entrance fee was $6 and the food was ridiculously overpriced). Downright rinky-dink. I don’t think it was much bigger when I was a kid, though it probably has shrunk a bit since then. Back then the horse barn seemed like a long ways away, which, I suppose, is the reason I rarely visited the horse barn. That and horses were intimidating to me as a little kid. It’s actually nearby. Perspectives are different for kids.
I did try a sugar waffle during my recent visit, which tasted just I remember from when I was a kid – delicious. The taffy was a bit of a disappointment because back in the day there was a machine pulling the taffy. It was mesmerizing to watch. I don’t rightly recall, but I think that before the machine a couple people would do the taffy pulling by hand.
I remember one evening in particular that we as a family attended (including my parents). It was just a bit on the chilly side, weather-wise, and my parents made me wear a cardigan sweater to protect my health and well-being against the ravages of a somewhat chilly evening in late August. I felt SO ridiculous in that sweater and prayed to all the powers that be that I wouldn’t run into any of my friends. Well, as fate would have it, I did come across my friend Sam who was dressed in a fabulously cool cowboy outfit, as he was involved in the horses and horse show. I was miserable that entire evening and to this day I blame the scars I still bear on my parents and that accursed cardigan sweater.
Encyclopedic
I was an avid reader, as a kid. One of my friends derided me behind my back once, saying “He’s always got his nose in books” which I took as a compliment.
One of my favorite pastimes was to select a volume out of the set of encyclopedias on the bookshelf (many moons before the days of the ubiquitous internet and things like Wikipedia) and read through it, cover to cover, in one sitting. I would sometimes do this on nice sunny days when (theoretically) I should have been running around outdoors.
A game I loved playing was the Dictionary Game, which involved 3 or more people and a dictionary (in English). One person would open the dictionary to a random page, pick out a word that assumedly everybody knows, tell the other players the first letter of the word, and read the definition. The others would attempt to guess the word, and if someone was successful that person would take control of the dictionary. Otherwise the original person retained the dictionary and would find another word. The trick was to find words that are commonly known but are not easy to guess by the definition.
One of my favorite pastimes was to select a volume out of the set of encyclopedias on the bookshelf (many moons before the days of the ubiquitous internet and things like Wikipedia) and read through it, cover to cover, in one sitting. I would sometimes do this on nice sunny days when (theoretically) I should have been running around outdoors.
A game I loved playing was the Dictionary Game, which involved 3 or more people and a dictionary (in English). One person would open the dictionary to a random page, pick out a word that assumedly everybody knows, tell the other players the first letter of the word, and read the definition. The others would attempt to guess the word, and if someone was successful that person would take control of the dictionary. Otherwise the original person retained the dictionary and would find another word. The trick was to find words that are commonly known but are not easy to guess by the definition.
Vacations
My Aunt Doris (Mom’s sister) had a cottage on a lake in Maine we visited a couple times as a family. We didn’t have much contact with the cousins from Mom’s side of the family, at least that I recall when I was small, so it was a treat. The cottage was fairly rustic and the lake water was freezing, but I remember it being lots of fun there in the back woods of Maine. Dad caught a bass from the lake that he was extremely proud of. Just looked like a fish, to me. There was this game, of sorts, where my cousin Arthur and my brother Dennis would stand (balanced) on inner tubes out in the lake and Dad would throw a Frisbee out, hopefully close enough to one of them to catch it. I was too little for such, plus not being able to swim had something to do with it.
Dad borrowed somebody’s pop-up camper one year and we camped in a campground near Niantic, Connecticut:
I had never been camping, so picnicking and sleeping that close to the great outdoors was something special for me. Dennis and I kept hearing wild animal noises at night, though our parents didn’t believe us. It was proven to be true when one night we all were woken up by a disturbance in the screen tent (set up for eating). Dad shined a flashlight to reveal a mob of skunks after our food stash. Dennis & I felt vindicated. There was a beach nearby which we frequented, and a field next to us where we played football, frisbee, and such.
We would sometimes go into town and eat at a place call the Harbor Drive-In. They had the best milkshakes. Here’s me and Dennis waiting for our food:
Dad borrowed somebody’s pop-up camper one year and we camped in a campground near Niantic, Connecticut:
I had never been camping, so picnicking and sleeping that close to the great outdoors was something special for me. Dennis and I kept hearing wild animal noises at night, though our parents didn’t believe us. It was proven to be true when one night we all were woken up by a disturbance in the screen tent (set up for eating). Dad shined a flashlight to reveal a mob of skunks after our food stash. Dennis & I felt vindicated. There was a beach nearby which we frequented, and a field next to us where we played football, frisbee, and such.
We would sometimes go into town and eat at a place call the Harbor Drive-In. They had the best milkshakes. Here’s me and Dennis waiting for our food:
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