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- Story Listed as: Fiction For Teens
- Theme: Love stories / Romance
- Subject: Coming of Age / Initiation
- Published: 03/23/2017
Come to the Fair!
There were two fairs a year. September and this one in May – when a young man’s heart lightly turns to thoughts of love. I wasn’t that bothered about love at 14, just playing cricket and football.
The fair people with their fairground rides, booths and glittering side stalls would have to wait for the Wednesday market stall holders to clear away. Then they all rushed in to get the best pitch in the High Street. By dark they were all set up ready to open the next day. The high street was totally transformed into a place of dreams and by the next night the big rides like the Waltzer, Dodgems and Speedway were all up and running. The noise from their generators was only eclipsed by the even louder music blasting from mountains of loudspeakers. It was all the latest top of the pops. The older generation thought it was ruinous but of course the start of the new bracket of ‘teenager’ thought it was the most exciting thing ever to happen in their lives. We lived to hear each week’s top record. My favourite that week was ‘Stuck on you’ by Elvis.
I loved to play the slot machines. One fired a ball bearing around a hooped track to eventually drop into a rack of holes that payed out (if lucky) in coins into the out brass collection cup. I thought skill could win in the end depending on how much leverage was put on the firing handle. But no I couldn’t crack it.
One night I had a charmed spell on one stall rolling balls into numbered holes. I just didn’t seem to lose, they always added up to a winning score. The stall holder started scowling so I went home with a pot Alsatian and a teddy bear. Chuffed to bits.
I was mesmerised by the atmosphere and was quite happy strolling around by myself. I parked my bottom on the railings around the edge of the Waltzer and soaked up the throbbing music. The swinging cars came to a stop and started to refill. Suddenly a group of girls from school grabbed me.
“Come on we’ll take you for a spin!”
I wasn’t into girls at that time. they were like some form of stranger. I wasn’t very keen. There were four of them and before I knew it I was in the Waltzer with them, all shouting at once.
The chap taking the money and spinning the car, when needed, looked like an apprentice from a pirate ship of old.
Off we went. The chair picked up speed. Faster and faster. Then the pirate apprentice started to push it at just the right place on the lift over the rises and falls. It spun so fiercely we stuck to the car back. Even I was thinking of screaming but would never have matched the girls. Why do they do that?
When it finished we staggered out. A chap in the next car had lost his false teeth.
The apprentice pirate looked rough, muscles, and smug. The girls made eyes at him. I couldn’t understand why.
There was a series of side shows with unworldly exhibits. The two headed calf and various other horrible curiosities that were the work of some mad taxidermist. One I couldn’t fathom was a lady with no head. She was in a tent on her own and sat on a chair on a raised platform. Tubes came out of the gap on her shoulders where her head should have been. Her arms moved freely to commands from the patron. I know her head was there somewhere but how she hid it I just could not see.
I did like the flea circus. A model circus on a table with the audience gathered round and a Ring Master running the show. Barely perceivable fleas would walk a tight rope with sort of miniature flags so that you could see where they were. They emulated most circus tricks. Including jumping.
There was a large boxing booth. With luck I could see through the entrance door. An ex professional boxer took on anyone for a cash prize. He was not very big and I thought he was in for a hammering.
A large beer fueled farmhand got into the ring to loud cheers from his mates. He paraded about, invincible. The bell rang and he came at the smaller man arms flailing. The smaller man ducked and dived a couple of times then hit him square on the chin. It didn’t look like much of a punch but the farmhand dropped like a stone. It only took about thirty seconds.
I started to walk slowly home when round the corner of the Waltzer came the four girls. Too late, I couldn’t escape them. One was in my class, she was called Gillian.
“How about one last go?”
She grabbed my arm firmly and we were in the empty chair.
Now being alone with a girl I hadn’t done, and actually touching one was not on my list.
The ride set off smoothly and started to spin. Gillian took hold of my limp arm and draped it over her shoulder. Then horror of horrors she cuddled close to me.
I was not sure if I was terrified or in ecstasy.
The ride spun faster. The lights on the ride and down the High Street blended together with the music.
“’Cos I’m stuck, stuck on you.’” Elvis joined in the action.
I was totally spellbound.
By the time the ride started to slow down I was a totally different person to the one that had started it.
I held Gillian close before we got out and she smiled at me in such a way that it connected with a place I had never been to.
Life would never be the same again.
Come to the Fair.(Ossie Durrans)
Come to the Fair!
There were two fairs a year. September and this one in May – when a young man’s heart lightly turns to thoughts of love. I wasn’t that bothered about love at 14, just playing cricket and football.
The fair people with their fairground rides, booths and glittering side stalls would have to wait for the Wednesday market stall holders to clear away. Then they all rushed in to get the best pitch in the High Street. By dark they were all set up ready to open the next day. The high street was totally transformed into a place of dreams and by the next night the big rides like the Waltzer, Dodgems and Speedway were all up and running. The noise from their generators was only eclipsed by the even louder music blasting from mountains of loudspeakers. It was all the latest top of the pops. The older generation thought it was ruinous but of course the start of the new bracket of ‘teenager’ thought it was the most exciting thing ever to happen in their lives. We lived to hear each week’s top record. My favourite that week was ‘Stuck on you’ by Elvis.
I loved to play the slot machines. One fired a ball bearing around a hooped track to eventually drop into a rack of holes that payed out (if lucky) in coins into the out brass collection cup. I thought skill could win in the end depending on how much leverage was put on the firing handle. But no I couldn’t crack it.
One night I had a charmed spell on one stall rolling balls into numbered holes. I just didn’t seem to lose, they always added up to a winning score. The stall holder started scowling so I went home with a pot Alsatian and a teddy bear. Chuffed to bits.
I was mesmerised by the atmosphere and was quite happy strolling around by myself. I parked my bottom on the railings around the edge of the Waltzer and soaked up the throbbing music. The swinging cars came to a stop and started to refill. Suddenly a group of girls from school grabbed me.
“Come on we’ll take you for a spin!”
I wasn’t into girls at that time. they were like some form of stranger. I wasn’t very keen. There were four of them and before I knew it I was in the Waltzer with them, all shouting at once.
The chap taking the money and spinning the car, when needed, looked like an apprentice from a pirate ship of old.
Off we went. The chair picked up speed. Faster and faster. Then the pirate apprentice started to push it at just the right place on the lift over the rises and falls. It spun so fiercely we stuck to the car back. Even I was thinking of screaming but would never have matched the girls. Why do they do that?
When it finished we staggered out. A chap in the next car had lost his false teeth.
The apprentice pirate looked rough, muscles, and smug. The girls made eyes at him. I couldn’t understand why.
There was a series of side shows with unworldly exhibits. The two headed calf and various other horrible curiosities that were the work of some mad taxidermist. One I couldn’t fathom was a lady with no head. She was in a tent on her own and sat on a chair on a raised platform. Tubes came out of the gap on her shoulders where her head should have been. Her arms moved freely to commands from the patron. I know her head was there somewhere but how she hid it I just could not see.
I did like the flea circus. A model circus on a table with the audience gathered round and a Ring Master running the show. Barely perceivable fleas would walk a tight rope with sort of miniature flags so that you could see where they were. They emulated most circus tricks. Including jumping.
There was a large boxing booth. With luck I could see through the entrance door. An ex professional boxer took on anyone for a cash prize. He was not very big and I thought he was in for a hammering.
A large beer fueled farmhand got into the ring to loud cheers from his mates. He paraded about, invincible. The bell rang and he came at the smaller man arms flailing. The smaller man ducked and dived a couple of times then hit him square on the chin. It didn’t look like much of a punch but the farmhand dropped like a stone. It only took about thirty seconds.
I started to walk slowly home when round the corner of the Waltzer came the four girls. Too late, I couldn’t escape them. One was in my class, she was called Gillian.
“How about one last go?”
She grabbed my arm firmly and we were in the empty chair.
Now being alone with a girl I hadn’t done, and actually touching one was not on my list.
The ride set off smoothly and started to spin. Gillian took hold of my limp arm and draped it over her shoulder. Then horror of horrors she cuddled close to me.
I was not sure if I was terrified or in ecstasy.
The ride spun faster. The lights on the ride and down the High Street blended together with the music.
“’Cos I’m stuck, stuck on you.’” Elvis joined in the action.
I was totally spellbound.
By the time the ride started to slow down I was a totally different person to the one that had started it.
I held Gillian close before we got out and she smiled at me in such a way that it connected with a place I had never been to.
Life would never be the same again.
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