As a young girl my parents looked forward every year to those three weeks the youth fair was in town. It’s a place that holds lots of my childhood memories. The smell of the roasted corn and turkey legs, the addictive cotton candy that seems to disappear the moment you buy the bag, the rides that give you that tingly rush and the lights… I always loved the lights. One of my fondest memories is of a trip to we took to the youth fair with my parents and my mother’s parents who are no longer with us. My grandmother Georgina used to love the fair. That one visit I recall being about six or seven and being the only kid in the bunch. This was something I was quite accustomed to since my brother was born when I was just about to turn twelve. Granted I was spoiled for being an only child and that meant I had the cotton candy all to myself. My mother says that every time I was about to go on a ride I would hand over the bag of cotton candy to my grandparents and tell them to hold it but not eat from it ( “aguanta y no comas” ). Why this has even become a thing we remember is besides the point. Because honestly I sounded like a hundred percent brat of a child and why would my mother continue to remind me of such thing? This time as we strolled by the all the booths she reminded me, “Aguanta y no comas.” So I did what a changed woman would do, I bought them all cotton candy and shared. Bringing the boys to the fair felt like I was turning a page in own book. I’m no longer the teenager who rides all the thrilling upside down attractions, but the mom who feeds her kids glorious and fattening fair food while we wait until they grow tall enough to ride the carrousel by themselves. I now understand why my parents and grandparents brought me here. And it’s for the same reason I enjoyed bringing the boys. Their sense of curiosity and wonder was definitely awakened with all the flashing colorful lights and noises. Not to mention the screaming kids on the crazy rides. One day I may be brave enough to encourage them to be bold enough to ride everything just like their mom did. But for now, holding them close and sharing a corn on the cob was the highlight of our family youth fair adventure.
