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My parents are older, so when I was about 7, my mom was 50. It was a pretty rare thing for my parents to ride carnival rides with me at the state fair, and when we went to Disney World, so I got pretty used to riding them alone. I was ok with it! As long as they were there for me before and after and I could wave to them from the top of swinging dragon ship, it was all good. Occasionally though, my parents would go on a ride with me and it became the most magical. thing. EVER.
One day my mom and I were out running errands together and we happened upon a pop-up carnival in the parking lot of a big store. I begged her to go in, and since it was a pretty small carnival, she acquiesced. I spent probably an hour riding ponies, throwing rings at bottles, playing skee-ball, and riding the spinny-swingy-death-rides and finally it was time to go. I grabbed my little toy winnings and discovered I had two tickets left.
"Can we plleeeeeeease just use up my last two tickets first? And then we can go?"
How could she resist? I was adorable, dammit. She agreed that if we found something on the path that led to the exit, I could use them before we left.
I looked around all over for anything that cost two tickets, desperately seeking that one last ride when I saw it. The teacup ride. It cost one ticket and nobody was on it. I looked at my tickets, then at my mom. She grabbed my hand and we ran over to give my ticket to the attendant.
My eyes absolutely lit up when the fellow asked, "both?" and she said. "yes."
I couldn't believe it! Mom was going to ride with me! How did I get so lucky?!
Together we picked out a white teacup with pink polka dots and sat down. The music started. The teacups began to move.
I discovered a plate in the middle of our teacup, that if you held it and turned, would spin the cup. I tried it. Then mom grabbed it and before I knew it we were spinning so fast that the world around us was a blur of colors and flashing lights. I thought it was hilarious!! I kept spinning and laughing and laughing and spinning. My mother started to laugh which made everything all the more merry. My own emotional cup was so full at that moment in time, that deep belly laughs were erupting from my body like too much tea from a kettle. I laughed so hard and so long that my face hurt and my voice became deep and throaty, which made me laugh even more. I laughed the entire time we were on that ride and my mom kept spinning and laughing with me. It was pretty much the happiest moment ever.
Too soon, the cups began to slow down. We let ourselves slowly spin to a stop and when we gathered our bags and stumbled from the ride, I took her hand and said, "whew! That was fun."
