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Senior Scribe
The
Ride
By Mona Lease
Hi, all!! How many of you
remember going to the Fair and riding the biggest, tallest ride there -
The SkyDiver? It sat catty-corner from the Speed Office on the
south end of the Fairgrounds. From the top-most car you could see all
the way up to the Grand Stand! Remember the anticipation - how your
heart beat faster? You were on the ride - it moved and stopped to
load more people - "Come on" - "Hurry it up, already!"
Then it started - slowly at first and picked up speed with each
revolution. You waved at the people on the ground that were waiting
on you. They smiled and waved to you. The music was loud and the
smells of the food stands wafted up to you in a heady mix with the
hay & straw from the nearby horse barns and the sun-heated
asphalt. As the fluid in your ears shifted to help you maintain your
balance (that kept shifting), the slight dizzy sensation started,
that gave it all an adrenalin-induced rush - added with the wind in
your face. It was pure ecstacy! (Please let the guy running the ride
start talking to someone and forget about us so we get a "super-long"
ride!). But you know the ride will stop and you have no more money.
Remember the House of
Mirrors? Remember how they distorted to make the big look small and
every other imaginable shape? In our world since roughly the late
'70's - enter MasterCard (Master the possibilities!)...and American
Express (The Expressway to your dreams!) All you had to do was get a
card and a Dr.
Since we (USA) bombed Japan
(Hiroshima, Nagasaki, ect) - it's like we've been on a adrenaline
rush - "We did it..We gave them what-for." "Anyone
else want a piece of us?"...seemed to be the attitude. It was
like we had the world on a string. (When did the string turn into
Sher Khan's tail?)
Only it's all been an
illusion. We will never be pretty on the outside forever. The flesh
weakens - gravity takes control and ultimately we're left with what
is on the inside. We all get caught up in the pomp and circumstance
of the lights and the giddy feelings.
But - I think the "Ride"
is slowing to a stop now. .."Please, just one more round
(year?). "Mr. Ride Tender" - can't you look the other way
for a little while longer? As the ride slows and the fluid in your
ears catches up to the slowing motion of the ride - the euphoria
leaves. As you walk away from the ride - you give it a backward
glance. "Maybe it will be here next year."
It was at this point when
we were early teenagers - that most of us learned to "pick our
battles." Not everything was worth a fight - not everyone else's
fight was ours. Somehow we knew - then -we needed to use our energy
for the next year's Fair. If we wanted the "SkyDiver Thrill"
again - we'd have to work for it - 15 minutes that it really was. I
think we knew - then - that there is a beauty (peace?) to a quiet
spirit that knows that not every confrontation requires that we think
about it at all or even act upon it.
Remember the kiddies and
our service people. Take good care of the furry and feathered ones
out there. Be safe and healthy. See ya next time. Ever Toodles! MONA
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