I wrote this in college in 2004 for a nonfiction writing class.
Walking into the Iowa State Fair when I was a child was
always an overwhelming and exciting moment.
There were so many different smells.
My family and I always started at the animal barns, which smelled like
my Grandpa’s farm, pigs and manure. I
was always careful where I stepped.
After the animal barns we would continue our journey. As we walked into the fair a little farther
the aromas of all the foods would attack our noses. I could never decide what I wanted, corn dogs
were always a good option but so was the ice cream of the future “Dippin’
Dots.” It was all so yummy. Right as it was time to make my final
decision on the foods I wanted a sound caught my ear. A sound like no other, screams and laughter
over loud speakers, a sound that could only mean one thing, the BIG green and
yellow slide.
Now this
slide was like no other slide my young eyes had seen. It was not like any slide on any playground I
had ever been to. It was HUGE! There were about a million steps to climb up
before I could even go down it and I got to ride on a potato sack to make me go
fast. There were about six big humps to
fly over all while shooting down to the bottom where the grandma’s and
grandpa’s stood and watched. At night
the slide was beautiful. There were
lights strung all over it, reminding me of Christmas, and big bright lights
shooting all the way down the slide so the people were lit up as they flew to
the bottom.
My first
adventure with the incredible slide was when I was very young. My Dad and I stood in line to get our tickets
while my Mom, Brother, and Grandma inched their way toward the front of the
viewing area. Once we received our
tickets we had to get our potato sacks.
I tried and tried to grab my potato sack out of the bin but it was too
heavy so my Dad helped me get it out. As
I started dragging the sack up the stairs like I always did with my blanket at
home I realized I was not going to make it very far. My legs were not long enough to put one foot
on one step and the next foot on the other step. After about the first twenty slow steps a
long line of people had accumulated behind us.
Realizing I was holding up the line my Dad picked me and my potato sack
up and carried us to the top. The man at
the top was dressed in black and gold stripped overalls and I remember telling
my Dad he looked like a Hawkeye fan. My
Dad just smiled happy his Hawkeye spirit had reached me. The Hawkeye man laid down our sacks so that
my Dad would be right behind me to hold on to me and then said, “Have a nice
ride!” As I sat down on my sack and
looked to the bottom I got very nervous.
The big inviting slide from the bottom looked a lot friendlier than it
did from the top. I looked back at my
Dad, and he could tell I was nervous. He
looked at me and said, “Don’t worry I won’t let go.” We pushed off and started zooming down
catching air over the humps. I was
screaming the whole way hoping my Mom and Grandma would hear me over the loud
speakers. When we got to the bottom my
Mom took our picture and I couldn’t wait until the next year to ride the Big
green and yellow slide again.
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