The City Streets Are Bright With Lights

by Wild Thing

Title

The City Streets Are Bright With Lights

Artist

Wild Thing

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

I have always loved the carnival and going instantly transports me back to my childhood days when my dad would try to win a stuffed toy for me from one of the many vendors. To his taking us on the tilt-a-whirl and getting it spinning soooo fast we'd get sick! But no way were we not going to get on that ride with him! Laughing, we'd beg for more! Our mother would walk along admonishing him but he would good naturedly tell her to shush, the child in him reveling in the fun as much as we were. Stuffed with cotton candy and corn dogs, we'd munch on salted in the shell peanuts while watching the fireworks sharing a Coke. It was a magical night of fun with him ... it wasn't until I was older that I would learn that he had saved all his coins for the whole year just to make that one night of magic for us. Having the hindsight of age, I knew we were poor growing up and had always wondered how we could afford the extravagance of that night. I asked my mother once and she told me how every night before bed, he would empty his pockets. Whatever change was in them, he would put in a coffee can. Sometimes it might only be a few pennies. The day before he'd take us to the carnival, he'd sit up and count the money and put it into rolls to take to the bank. Then every dollar and cent, down to the last penny, was spent on us at the carnival. It was just one of the many ways my father worked to make our childhood special despite our poverty.

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June 26th, 2015

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