"I've walked these streets in a carnival of sights to see..."

This weekend was Purim and, as tradition would have it, we took the kids to a Purim carnival. While I was there, I visited memories of this fun fair my BFF and I would go to every year around the end of February or beginning of March (usually over Pulaski weekend…when schools in Chicago got a day off in honor of Casimir Pulaski). It was part of the Indian Princess federation that my sister and I were in with our dad (which will be discussed in a future blog). The fair was usually huge and had several rooms full of different games, such as ring tosses, bean bag throws, bowling with plastic balls and pins, pulling ducks out of water, etc. We’d get tickets for all the games and would put them towards lots of little stuffed animals (which would later adorn my headboard and dressers). One year, there was a game that had its own prizes. We could pick out a poster if we won. I really wanted this poster of Michael J. Fox and I kept playing until I got it. Ironically, it refused to stay up on my wall!

Sometimes I’d get to help at the booth our “tribe” was running. I think we ran a game where people had to knock down a pyramid display of cans. The platform had wallpaper from our guest bathroom (silvery with butterflies). I think my parents had initially made it for our temple’s Purim carnival and then gave it over to Indian Princesses. I remember commenting that it looked like our bathroom. That’s probably why I found the “potty toss” game (at yesterday’s Purim carnival) that much funnier. (That, and the fact that another close friend and I tried to stuff a ton of toilet paper down the toilet when we were about my younger son’s age.)

I always looked forward to this carnival, as well as a long weekend hanging out with my BFF and going to the mall together on Pulaski Day. I think that’s why I enjoy taking my kids to carnivals these days. (I also used to like going to the 4th of July festivals with my family when I was younger, but they’ve become sketchy and expensive over time.)