Carnivals

Image source.

This great photo of the Dark Ride at Coney Island reminded me of the local carnival that would come to the high school parking lot near my home when I was growing up. I was in early grade school and I can remember begging my mother to let me go into the Haunted House [trailer]. I was old enough and brave enough and wanted to feel like a teenager, or a manly man. So my mother and I entered the Haunted House [trailer] and moments later we were in complete and total darkness. I don't know what I was expecting from something that rode around on the back of a truck all across the country, but the entire "ride" was the pitch black interior of a trailer, probably with a crude maze to prolong the experience. I could hear my mother laughing as we both tried to feel our way along the walls and out of the Haunted House [trailer]. I'm not going to lie. By this time I was petrified. Truly about to panic from fright. I was way too young for this sort of thing and totally praising God that my mother emasculated me and came along for the ride. The agony of having no sight for that long was excruciating. And then it happened. Right before the exit, a massive interior-illuminated green head lit up along with a bladder-releasing buzzing sound - the coup de grace. It was behind glass and was really rather bizarre. In my mind, it looked like the weird Martian King Thing in INVADERS FROM MARS.

But it was probably just a large plastic head, lit from the inside by a green flood lamp. It worked perfectly. Everyone screamed. Except me. I said I had banged my head on the glass enclosing that horrible head. The tears, you see, were from the pain. My mother totally knew I was lying, but never let on.

Manly manliness still intact.