So much for the carnival

We were on pins and needles as long as the carnival was there. The second day Daddy took us out again and gave Mother some 'peace of mind,' as she put it. We never got tired of watching the clowns running around or the pretty things we could win if we could throw the ball straight enough. But we never thought of wasting money on things like that. Beside the fact that we never had any money.

We got to ride the merry-go-around one more time and that used up all our passes. We were getting pretty dirty from the dust by then.

"Here, Buddy," Daddy said. He gave him a dime and said to take us girls over to the big red square thing full of ice and buy a drink to share with us. "Mickey, you be sure to keep hold of the girls hands now." So off we went with me on one side of Mickey and Joan on the other side of her. Buddy had to be the big man and walked in front of us so we wouldn't get lost so here we went.

Buddy gave the man the dime and said we wanted the biggest bottle he had cause we all had to share it. Well, of course, Buddy had the first swallow of it then let us girls have a drink. I took as big a swig as I could and swallowed it down. I couldn't get my breath and my eyes started to get full of tears! "Well," Buddy said, " you should not have taken so much!" Mickey was smarter that I was so she just took a little and Joan was so little she just took a little, too. Buddy drank most of the rest but let us all have just a little sip more. This time, believe me, I just took a little sip. Buddy took us back and Daddy said we had better go home now so Buddy took us home. But he got to go back.

'Okay girls, its time to get ready for bed now.' We all knew we had to wash up. Thankfully we had a pump about 30 feet behind our tent. It was at one time a bright red I'm sure but by the time we got there it was pretty rusted over. We didn't let that bother us tho' because we at least didn't have to haul water from the creek!

We had two one-holer out-houses about 100 feet over at the side and since that's all we had ever known anyway, we were sitting pretty! (So to speak)

Mickey and I took the buckets and went to the pump and got them full of water. We didn't get in the tub that night because there were too many strangers around. Mother made sure we scrubbed our faces, arms and legs so we wouldn't get her covers dirty.
When we were all washed, Mother put the kerosene lamp in the middle of the table and lit it. I guess this was a nightly thing with us. We all set around the table and Mother read out of the bible to us.

It wasn't long before we were falling asleep in the chairs so mom fixed our pallet. There was only one bed and that was for Mother and Daddy and the baby, of course. Mickey and I slept at the head and Joan slept at the foot.

Mickey and I giggled for a little about the clown and the big stick you could hit the bottom of with a hammer and it would go up and ring a big bell. We didn't see anyone really ring the bell but we knew our Daddy could have done it if he didn't have to work all the time!

"Okay, girls." Mother's warning was enough to quiet us down. We dropped off to sleep right away because we were so tired.

Now I'm tired again, too, so I'm just;

Prattling on...

Summer is summer wherever you are...

The place "uptown" was cooler than the desert, or so it seemed. The wind blew in through the tent flaps so we were more comfortable. Our latest "good" thing was the ice man and the little bits of ice we were able to enjoy.Our glasses were Just tin cans mother had saved or picked up somewhere but the koolaid we had in them was the coldest ever!!

We were not there too long before mother had to go on a little walk around. She left early in the morning and Daddy had to keep us kids under control which wasn't hard because we were always ready to be good for him. Mother came back that evening late and we had some supper.

Daddy had made biscuits and mother pitched in and made gravy to go with some kind of really salty meat. But we didn't complain about that because we had koolaid to wash it down with. Besides Daddy said it was really good and who in their right mind would dispute his word, as Mother put it.

Daddy asked mom how her trip went and she said her friends were moving to California. She said she didn't have to walk all the way home because someone named Bonnie and Clyde came along in a big car and let her ride on the fender part of the way home. She told Daddy they gave her a cigarette and it almost made her sick. We didn't have cigarettes at home because no one uused them. Daddy always had his snuff and that kept him happy.

The other tenters began to move out, to where no one knew I'm sure, but it wasn't long till we were the only ones there.

One day our lot began to fill up with big trucks and all kind of equipment . We were amazed at the things being unloaded!!! There were horses and all kind of little animals!! We all, except Mother and the baby, walked over the lot to see what was going on. The man said it was going to be a carnival!! We were jumping up and down with excitement. Daddy asked the man if her could help put it together. "Yep," the man said. He would pay Dad a small amount and us kids could all have a free pass to ride the things. But he said all us girls had to stay at the tent out of the way. Boy, did that bust our bubble.

Buddy and Daddy worked all day and into the night getting it ready to go. It took all the next day to get it all put together. Then all the people started coming.

Daddy took us kids over to it and Mother came, too, carrying the baby. She saw all of it she wanted to. She said she wasn't about to get on those crazy things and break her neck. Try as he would, Daddy couldn't get her to ride anything.

Daddy took all of us around with our passes and by then everyone knew Daddy and they let us ride on all we could. then he took us and Mother back to the tent. Mom was ready to go by then. She said they were kicking up too much dust. Mickey got sick on the merry go round. I guess we all had a ball, or so it seemed to us.

Daddy told mom to keep us in the tent and not to come out because there were too many strange men around. Mother promptly told him she was not afraid of any of them!! But we stayed in the tent.

Buddy and Daddy worked with them as long as the carnival was there. Then we had meat to put in the ice tub. It seemed like we never ran out of potatoes. Much to our dismay, the carnival only lasted so long but we talked about it for what seemed to be forever; It gave our fertile minds something to work on for the longest. Of course we had to take turns being the "barker".And that came to an end when mom got enough of it.

Not too long after that Mother mentioned to Daddy about wanting to go to California. She said there was work there to be had.

I have run out of the subject for this writing so it's off to fix dinner for the man of the house.

Till then---I'm prattling on...