Carnival Caravan Chapter 1

Carnival Caravan by Kristin L Larson

Chapter 1: Late Start

I awaken to loud voices outside my window.?The voices were getting louder, and one person yelled, “Get the electrical cords wrapped up and throw them in the truck.”?Another voice yelled back, “It is already hotter than Mississippi in July.” ?The sun begins to peek through the homemade pastel blue flowered kitchen curtains. I slowly open my eyes and my back hurts from cleaning the concession stand last night. ?I was up until 1 am and now I gazed over at the kitchen clock, and it was 7 am. ?Suddenly, my aunt Chick, her nickname, real name Darlene, comes barreling in the trailer, “It’s time to move kids, get up and brush your teeth. You only have time to brush your teeth, we're running late.”?I brushed my hair quickly, put it up in a ponytail, put on a t-shirt, and pulled on my worn-out blue jeans.?I rolled up my blankets and put the bed up under the kitchen table.?My aunt kept the temperature in our Airstream trailer cold due to her asthma. ?At night we slept in a sleeping bag with blankets over the top. ??Karman, my sister wanted to take a shower but there was no time. ??The a/c would soon be shut off, so you wanted to get out quickly. My aunt started disconnecting our water hoses and all the electrical cords.?We would soon be on the road to another small town somewhere in the Dakotas.?

Our family carnival, Premier Shows traveled the Dakotas from May to September, bringing carnival food, games, and 27 rides for entertainment to these small towns for their small-town fair celebrations. ?My grandmother was the matriarch.?She was outside as usual directing everyone with her microphone.?Let us just say she used colorful language to get the job done. ??She was short in stature with long black hair with streaks of gray piled high in a bun.?She goes over the final details with everyone as to the roads we will travel.?Grandma knows the backroads of the Dakotas like no one else.?She grew up in Killdeer, ND on a cattle ranch.?Her life was pure poverty and it entailed work and more work.?She broke horses standing up bareback in the creeks.??You could hear Grandma telling everyone, “We need to get the hell on the road, or we will not make it before sundown.”?It is important to get to these towns before the sun sets to connect electricity and water.??The mini ponies needed water and the other small animals from the petting zoo.?The lamas, goats, and mini ponies brought smiles to many children.??We had names for each of the ponies, but Cookie was my favorite.??

We all piled into the old Chevy truck.?It had no a/c, and the radio stations played country music.?My aunt chick was in the driver's seat, my cousin, Jolene in the middle, my sister Karman and me next to the window. They usually let me have the window because I spit sunflower seeds out the window and because I was the youngest on the show. ?I put my feet up on the dashboard, put my sunglasses on and my aunt handed me a cold coca cola and some leftover popcorn from the stand.??I smiled at her and said, “Thanks, Aunt Chick, a breakfast for champions.”??We rolled the windows down.?This was the best part of traveling with my family.?We were all musical. ??My cousin and I would sing, “Silver Threads and Golden Needles.”?I was 11 years old, and it will be a summer to remember.??The carnival caravan started.?My grandma was first in the yellow truck.?We followed my grandpa in his old station wagon pulling his teardrop tin trailer. ?You could see his dog Togo sticking his head out the passenger window. ?Everyone thought he was so poor. Another story to follow on that.??We had 250 miles to travel to get to the next town.

Sweat started to penetrate down the back of my shirt and the dust from the open fields got stuck in my throat. We had water along, yet it did not quench my thirst.?As we crossed the blue highways in South Dakota and traveled through the Indian reservations, I saw cars left beside the road, and garbage piled high next to trailers along the way.?I asked my aunt, “Why are all these cars along the road??Why do these homes look so sad?” She said, “You need to understand what has happened to these people.?They were here long before us.?Do you want to learn the real history, listen and I will tell you?” Along these roads, she told the history of the South Dakota Indian tribes.?

As we moved through the small towns, people in the streets would stare at us.?The trucks hauled the carnival rides which would take an entire day to set up.?We stopped to fill up with fuel in Mobridge, South Dakota and we all piled out to stretch our legs. My aunt gave me a five-dollar bill and told us to go into the gas station and get us all something to drink. As I walked into the Standard Station, there were mostly older men sitting around a table drinking coffee and wearing Pioneer Seed hats and overalls.?The small-town farmers all looked at me and then looked away. ?I looked for a bathroom and found one on the way back of the store.?It read, “Out of Order.” ???I went to the glass refrigerator and got 4 glasses of bottled coca-colas for us.?The woman at the tile asked me, “Where are you going with your carnival?” I said, “Lemmon, South Dakota.”?She did not smile and appeared to be haggard and tired due to years of work. ?I left quickly as I needed to find a bathroom.?I asked my aunt, “The bathroom is out of order, where can I go?”?We will find a place very soon for you.??We got back in the truck and after we were a few miles out of town, my aunt pulled the truck over to the side of the road.?She got out and opened my door.?“Here we go, you can take a Kleenex and head to the cornfield.”?Our family referred to this as pissing in the weeds.?I ran down the ditch through the brown grass was tall and made it to the edge of the cornfield. ?The corn was just as tall as I.?I hurried so we could get back on the road.?I got back in the truck and asked, “When will we stop to eat?”?I was getting hungry. Karman and Jolene were both 5 years older than I, told me to eat more of my sunflower seeds.?My aunt said, “In about 30 minutes, we should be there and then you kids can eat.”?

Along the way, we would sing songs and my aunt would teach us history and geography.?My aunt had a degree in history.?She loved to teach us.?I could see the town in the distance and already knew what I would order from the menu.?I was thinking about how good it would taste.?There was one benefit to eating in these small towns, they usually had good food. ?Not all the carnival would stop here because it would be too many people.?Our family would usually stop and eat together. ?We parked along the small-town streets as people gawked and stared at us.??There was a mom & pop restaurant down the street.???I opened the truck door; I could feel the heat on my bare feet. I quickly grabbed my flip flops.?The café window said “open”.?As we walked inside, the small-town people looked at us if we were aliens.???The booths were old and torn in some places and the table had glass rings and coffee stains on it. ?At this point, I was so hungry and asked my aunt if there was a hot beef sandwich special.?She was not sure and said we would find out soon.?The waitress appeared to be tired, and her apron looked like it had not been washed for a week.?She brought us short Clinton water glasses to our tables.?I poured it down my neck. It was cold but it tasted a little different.?I asked, “Do you have a hot beef special?”?She looked at me like I was asking for filet mignon.?She responded condescendingly “No, we only got what is on the menu.?Can you read?”?My aunt replied, “Now, you do not need to talk to my little baby girl that way.?She is in the top of her class in reading, writing and arithmetic.?Let’s all have a cheeseburger, French fries and a pitcher of coke.”?It was coca cola or nothing for my aunt.?My aunt was like my second mother, and she always watched over me and bought me special things.?My dad was a high school German teacher and he worked hard to make ends meet for our family of five. ??In the summer months, he would work construction and paint houses.

?I was disappointed because I loved hot beef on white bread, mashed potatoes with gravy on top.?We all sat around talking about the next town and the fair board.?My grandma said they were a pain in the ass to deal with and she would never play the town again.?My grandma was a straight shooter and people did not want to be on the wrong side of grandma.?My uncle Ed sat with my grandma with his dark sunglasses on.?He was by profession a forensic psychologist.?He told me the reason he wore the dark sunglasses is so he could observe people and people cannot see his eyes.?He said, “Krissy if people can’t see your eyes, they are unable to see into your soul.?Now remember that kid.”?I was so hungry but sat patiently waiting for our food.?Finally, the waitress came with our food, and I said, “Thank you ma’am.”?I think she was surprised, and she smiled at me.?I devoured my cheeseburger and French fries.?Our entire family loves pie, so my aunt called the waitress over and she looked annoyed. “What kind of pie do you have today?”?The waitress responded, “We only got one kind left. 2 Apple pies.”?My aunt responded, “We will take it, both pies please. If you could give everyone a piece with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.”??“You know that will be an extra cost for the ice cream.”?My aunt, “Yes, I do understand.?Do you know that your tips are based on your customer service?”?We were treated as if we were not educated and did not know up from down.?Little did this person know my family was business smart and educated.?At this young impressionable age, I discovered that we as carnival family “carnies” were treated with disrespect and second class. ??