Sunday, August 13, 2006
Magic Carpet Ride
Had a really nice week - Terry and the kids came for a few days. It was an interesting counterpoint to the events of the past few weeks. The joy and laughter and youthful vitality children bring into the mix - along with the fact that we all had a chance to feel Terry's new as yet, unborn baby kickin and jumpin for joy in utero - all that added to the reality of life's ever-undulating cycles.
Everything was capped off last night at Bushkill park. We got there at dusk just as the crowds were exiting and the lights dimming at the rides. "They're all closed up for the night", people said as we approached the entrance. Altho I was VERY skeptical, Mama Di unabashedly approached the old lady begging just "one more ride for the little ones" - luke and grace.
I was only accustomed to the people who man the rides at 4H Fairs , who after a coupla days, load all the rides up and head into another town in a dizzy dull delirium, vacant eyes and vacant hearts, devoid of the joy their dull jobs are actually providing; the boardwalk college kids so intent on the dates or parties that night that they see children as just a huge interference to the frantic agendas they've been planning for hours, days, weeks, months.
No, Bushkill Park provided a new concept in "going to the rides". Mary Catherine, a young girl working at the park, on hearing Di's pleadings with the little old lady who runs the park, offered to go back and unlock the box that would allow the kids to take one last ride. And then as Luke was mumbling that he was wishing for one more ride, Mary Catherine agreed to not only that second one, but to a third one thrown in.
When offered money, she steadfastly refused several times until it would have been more rude of her to ignore the offering than accept. Reluctantly, she did. But what a doll - she helped turn a mess into magic.(Mary Catherine with the kids at Right)
(Mama Di, Granmom, and Aunt Mama Terry Below)
