Memories to Last a Lifetime

Spending summer nights at the local carnival with my Dad is one of my all time favorite childhood memories. My parents divorced when I was two, and I usually only saw my Dad a couple times a year… One week in winter and one in the summer. But he always made sure he had me when the carnival was in town.

Like in previous years, we played the game. I would act like I wasn’t secretly hoping the fair was in town, and he would keep his lid on TIGHT… until that night. Him: “..pretty hungry. got a sweet tooth. maybe we should go down into town and find some Blue Bell.” Me: (excitement bursting from every pore) “sure”.

We would drive, talking about nothing until… finally the ferris wheel lights flickered into sight. I would jump across the car and throw my arms around him, “thank you Daddy!!”. It’s funny the things that “stick”. The memories that live on after one of us is gone. My father died a while back, but I always cherish those memories we made back at those carnivals. Memories that, at the time, we had no idea we were doing much less how important they would be.

From the fluffy cotton candy that we all know is absolutely terrible for us to those squishy .50 cent animals you just basically paid $20 for, the carnival is full of wonder and excitement. And it’s worth every penny to those little love nuggets. As we keep getting reminded, life is short. Eat the cotton candy (within reason, y’all 😆) and let them throw another round of darts at that big balloon wall. Make some memories doing something so fun there’s no way they could ever forget them.

Thanks for the memories, Pop ❤️