Trip to EMSF with cousins turns out great

Author kept busy chasing after excited family members

 

Nothing says Midwest summer like a trip to the state fair, or so I’ve heard. I hadn’t had the opportunity to spend an afternoon running around the fairgrounds with my family or a group of friends since I was a little kid, and even then, I’ve only been once. I usually find myself in Rose City, Michigan, attending church camp when the fair comes to town.

A slight turn of events had my parents in Nashville for a work trip, leaving my schedule completely open to new experiences. To my delight, my Aunt Jenny had reached out and asked if I wanted to take a trip to the Eastern Michigan State Fair that Tuesday, with my cousins John and Wyatt.

I had been itching to get out of the house and was out the door as soon as she pulled into my driveway.

Upon arrival, Wyatt, only seven years old, was so excited, he couldn’t sit still. The anticipation of standing just outside the gate drove him mad. I waited next to John and my aunt, watching with my camera as he scrambled onto a boulder they had displayed on the sidewalk. He sat on that rock like he was king of the world, soaking up every second of his little gimmick.

After a while, the amusement of standing on a boulder faded. I had gotten my pictures, and the novelty was gone. He started to realize the rock was a bit too tall for him to comfortably jump down. The line was moving, but he wasnt.

His older brother took one look at him perched on the edge of his rock like a bird and told him to just jump, “it’s not that high,” but I saw the fear in his eyes. He hopped on my hip, and I helped him back to the ground so we could enter the park.Getting through the gates did not dull his energy; if anything, it added gasoline to an already blazing wildfire. I bounced along with my camera still slung over my neck as he pulled my aunt in every direction, pointing at rides and begging, “Mom, can we ride that one?”

After a few minutes of browsing, He spotted a fun house. He had grabbed my hand, dragging me with him, towing me through a mirror maze he somehow managed to navigate without bumping into a single wall.

I couldn’t make heads or tails between the gaps and the mirrors. He continued to lead me up a set of tiny blue metal stairs and onto a platform with a slide and even more wacky mirrors. We stood in front of one mirror, laughing at the two squashed beings reflected back at us, before moving to the next mirror that made us look more gangly than Bigfoot.

We stood in front of about five different mirrors, making faces at each other, before it was our turn to slide back down to ground zero. He started running the moment his feet hit the floor. He pointed, and we followed.

When I saw he had found the snake rollercoaster, I flashed back to the one other time I went to the fair as a child. My cousin Emily Rose and I had ridden the same coaster together as little girls, thinking it was so big and scary.

When I look at it now, I laugh. Neither of us would be able to fit in a car anymore. Who knew age could play such a role in perception?

As soon as Wyatt got in line, he ran up to the little sign to measure himself, just double-checking that he was tall enough to ride.

Of course, he was proudly over the required forty-eight inches and darted back to his momma, His big blue eyes watching the coaster glide over the metal tracks over and over again as the line finally died down, and he found himself at the front.

The carnie made all the kids line up in front of the sign again, just to be sure each one was tall enough to ride, to my amusement. When Wyatt finally got on the coaster, I made sure I took pictures of the green carts gliding across the track to show him later.

I want him to share a similar experience with me. I want him to see the rollercoaster when he grows up, and think, Wow, I can’t believe how big it seemed back then.