The carnival of Walt

Yesterday Walt took his cute little granddaughter to a "carnival" organized by the Lions Club of a village somewhere in North America. It was a pretty good carnival -- better than expected, in fact -- and put me in mind of the midway at a county fair as remembered from half a century ago.

There were thrill rides, not too high-tech compared with Disney's Space Mountain or the like. You would have to consider a merry-go-round and a ferris wheel thrilling. And you know what? They were fifty years ago and still are!

And there were games of chance, wheels of fortune and skill contests. I missed the one where you hit a pad with a sledgehammer and tried to ring a bell about 200 feet up in the air. The most popular game seemed to be the old standby -- bingo.

I noticed one big difference between today's carnival and the fairs of yesteryear. That's the cost! For one ride on the ferris wheel, for self and grandkid, Walt shelled out $9. That's nine dollars! OK, call me cheap, but that seemed a lot for about 5 minutes of mild excitement. (You are cheap! And you've paid a lot more for 5 minutes of excitement! ed.)

I can remember going to the country fair with $5 in my pocket and being able to make it last the whole afternoon. 50 years later, prices seem to have inceased ten-fold. Where would a kid today get that kind of money? Last I heard, they're still paying minimum wage at McD's, so the Simpsons' pimply-faced teenager could easily spend a day's wage on cotton candy and being spun round and round until he pukes. Some fun.

But there's always a ray of sunshine. The bingo was still 25 cents a card, just as I remember it. And you still sat on a rough bench under a tent, with straw bedding under your feet, just as I remember it.

OK, the outing cost a lot more than it used to -- what doesn't -- but was still fun, even for a jaded old geezer like Walt.

although