I've said it once but its worth repeating, growing up with my dad there weren't alot of things I was allowed to do by myself. I was rarely allowed to drive myself to and from school and that was only if dad could check my mileage to make sure I didn't go to far. I was rarely allowed to go to school functions like ball games and dances.I couldn't be in many school clubs or anything because he would not allow me to stay after school for meetings and so on. This being said the one thing I was always allowed to do, for whatever reason, was attend the local county fair. I'm not quite sure why this event, of all things was ok for dear old dad and why this event, he would gladly give me more money than I could spend and allow me to spend virtually the entire week at a friends house so we could be at the fair from open to close every day. As a kid and well, up until today I wondered why fair week was essentially a free pass for me.
Every year I would look forward to the fair coming to our small town. Most years I spent the week with my then best friend Alicia. Alicia and I had known each other since Kindergarten and we always made quite the experience out of the fair. Alicia was always a much better dresser than me. I can remember her dressed in the best brands and the newest styles. I always looked up to her sense of style and her awesome wardrobe. I remember we would spend almost the entire day getting ready for the fair. She would pick out her outfit and give me free reign to pick an outfit of my own from her massive, beautiful closet. After we picked out our outfits we would saunter over to her moms bathroom where we would proceed to try on makeup and beautify ourselves for a big night of fun at the fair.
Year after year this would go on. Her and I getting ready the whole time talking about what boys we hoped to see there. Between the two of us I think there was consistently a group of the same 4 boys we hoped to see. Most times we saw these boys, sometimes we didn't and sometimes we learned the hard way that boys can come between friends. Overall, I think the entire fair experience was probably one of the most beneficial, educational experiences of my life. Most of what I learned about being a teenager and how to cope with it happened at the fair. To this day every time I hear the "I Like Big Butts" song I think of Trimble Co Fair riding a tilt a whirl. There are also certain people, like Alicia, that I cant help but think about when I think about funnel cake, the Gravitator or carnies.
My dad may have been protecting me from the world by not letting me do many things but he certainly couldn't keep me from growing up. Most of the growing I did happened behind the bars of Ferris Wheel or in my childhood friend Alicia's moms bathroom. My lesson learned here, instead of trying to blind your kids from what life is about try experiencing it with them. I know my girls will make hard decisions, some right, some wrong. I know my girls will find themselves in precarious situations with other kids, I know my girls will make mistakes that will sometimes go unnoticed but other times be crystal clear. All I can hope for is that I will have a solid enough relationship with them that I will be riding along side them on the Tilt a Whirls of life and not laid back in the distance hoping for the best.
