On the TV this morning they were advertising a carnival starting today and going through the Holiday. There is also a rodeo going on. One of the people they spoke with was employed by the rodeo as a Barrel man in the Bull riding. This fellow said he would be at the carnival this evening as he has a 5 year old child and all the rides will be only one dollar each.
I haven’t been to a carnival for many years, so I am not familiar with the prices of rides at these events. If you have to pay more than a dollar to get on a ride, I think that is not good.
When I was a children back in the olden days, going to May Green School, in the 4th grade, there was a thing known as Fair day. Even though you know what Fair Day was, I am still going to explain, so that one person will understand.
Let’s see now, if I was in the 4th grade, that would have made me nine (9) years old. If my olden day’s math still works, that would be 62 years ago, or 1956. Were you around in 1956? Probably not, so I will continue.
School started around the first of September, after a wonderful summer break, and the Fair came to Cape in mid-September. All the public schools would let the kids off a half day so they could attend this wonderful event. They had all the carnival rides, and a huge livestock show. I would team up with a couple other kids my age and a parent of one of the kids would take us to the fair grounds. They would drop us off with instructions to be back at the drop off point at a certain time.
Yep, we were on our own. I would have between a $1.50 and $2.00 to spend at the fair. Even though we were young we knew we had to be frugal with the money. We would walk through the entire carnival looking at the rides and deciding what we wanted to ride.
Most rides were .10 cents except for the bumper cars and they were .25 cents. Needless to say, we never rode the bumper cars, although we did stand and watch the people who did. We managed our money and had a lot of fun. I never spent money on food even though you could get a hamburger for .20 cents. I could eat when I got home, although I did buy some cotton candy.
When most of our money had been spent we would then go through the livestock exhibit. There were other exhibits for farm equipment and we usually went through them. They usually had things to give away like rulers and pencils so we would cabbage on to anything free.
Finally it would be time to meet the parent who had brought us, so we would go back to the meeting place.
The olden days; now to a new subject.
The house behind us must have been bought by someone. People have rented the house for the past 5 to 10 years. Yesterday a crew came out and took the chain link fence down. It looked odd without a fence. They then put metal posts in the ground for the new fence which will be wood. If we weren’t on a fixed income we could have a wood fence.
There is an odd thing about this fence. It is 6 foot at the house and along the sides of the yard. It is 8 foot at the back of the yard near the ditch. If I knew this person who lived there I would believe they did not want to see any of the Fords or the Ford’s Homestead. Hurtful as it is to have strangers not wanting to see you, we will survive.
To see over the 8 foot fence I will need to get in the kids ole fort, on the top level, and I can see the entire yard, not that I would want to snoop. J
In other news, a friend who works at DIB is retiring this week. Friday will be his last day. I plan to go to DIB on Friday and wish him well in his retirement.
I interviewed and hired him about 28 years ago. Two points to that statement. One, he must have been a good employee! Two, I must have been good a selecting the best candidates for employment!
My neighbor is out mowing their yard. I should get a cup of coffee and sit outside and watch them mow, as it isn’t too hot yet. If we hit 100 again today we will be at 55 days of 100 or higher for the year.
Have a safe Holiday and be nice to someone!
Teller of old time tells; Don Ford
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