August 1--Woowzers

The Big Band today was the Big Smoothies headed by Darrel McGill (Seniors day guy)

Here he brought up a bunch of kids and did a reggae thing with them. He has a fun show.

Alex and Jenna the Lemon-aide girls.
Free Lemon-aide
The Daddy Long Legs are the king daddy of daddy long legs out here; this one is over three inches in diameter.
Doing their best Mr. Bean Paper face thingy.

What incredible audiences. We have had nothing but full audiences - enthusiastic to top. Today's crowds were off the charts. In spite of the fact that James and I started the day with minor food poisoning. We booth were queasy and emptied-out...if you know what I mean. Neither one of us really wanted to perform but...the show must go on. And on it did. The enthusiasm of the crowd released the adrenalin and took care of the stomach ills. The manager at the end of the day told me we were the first to fill the tent like we do for every show. Woo-hoo!

The Lemon-aide shop girls at the front of our tent have become friends. They give us free lemon-aide. They have seen every show, they almost know every line. They are nice girls.

I burned two of my fingers yesterday. I know you are wondering, "was it with the fire-eating", "was it with the fire-juggling torches"????? NOOOOO, it was while trying to burn the edges of nylon ropes so they don't fray. The molten hot nylon dripped onto my finger, the finger next to it got a second hand drip. It's amazing how fast burns blister!

Amelia has been quite the artist. She has been drawing up a storm. Then she folds them up and gives them away to "nice people". The lemon shop girls hung her picture up in the shop. Even a group of people sitting around just chatting got a picture. Then Amelia sat around chatting with the for a while. In the mean time Olivia handed her empty Capri-sun bag to one of the girls and told her to throw it away.

The following essay is from James:

Of all of the fairground's workers, the Carnie is considered to be the most vile and despicable creatures of the lot. Many are characterized by cheating us out of money and being generally creepy. Though I can neither confirm or deny the truth behind the cheating, the Ulster County fair has proved their general creepiness.The day is Thursday, and the fair is pulsing with the thousands of visitors that give life to grounds and heat to the air, the suns insufferable rays made the entire midway like an open oven. To most, the heat is bearable yet uncomfortable, but to the carnies, this weather is death to them, almost literally. The haunted house ride soon became haunted by the carnie with the seizure, or as described by one security guard an epileptic seizure. But more amazing than the seizure itself was the ignorance of it as she went back to operating the ride as if nothing had happened at all. This small feat of acting did not go unnoticed by the security guards and they attempted to shut that ride down, much to the disappointment of the carnie. By disappointment, I, of course, mean that she utterly refused to leave unless by force, which came by way of the HEAD CARNIE. As cleverly stated by the Security guard, the head carnie took this carnie on the back of the small cart on a piece of wood that you would not allow your dog to walk upon and dragged to the "Carnie Dungeon." From this humble abode, another carnie emerged who can only be described as immensely overweight. So much so that he could not stand to operate the ride and one set of stairs had to be closed off to accommodate seating for this man. Soon after this man had taken seat, the operator of the "Huge Slide" began to swoon like a drunk from the effects of dehydration. She had a slight sense of vertigo that made her hold onto slide for dear life as she swore that the slide was swaying. But to the surprise of the security guards, she refused water. This was similar to the reaction of the larger man, later on as he, too began to swoon due to the heat. An overpowering fear of drinking water had overcome them and only after much persuasion did they hurriedly drink the "illegal" liquid, much like greedy child after candy.Now that is all I know of the story. It was hypothesized, rather humorously, that these carnies were trained to survive off of one bottle of water in these cruel conditions and not allowed any more water. even more far fetched was the thought of the cruel tortures that they underwent within the sacred halls of the CARNIE DUNGEON, but I will leave that to your imagination to create.