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The fair

I wanted to get home at a reasonable time last night so I left Boston before the fair got going. I'll have to imagine the shadows dancing across the faces of the old town buildings, the coloured lights catching everyone in freeze-frame, the smell of diesel generators, the noise, the candy-floss.

I did manage to walk around the nearly completed site on Sunday night though.

Dodgems were in full force, as were Carousels, Ghost Trains, slides and arcades. I stopped by the larger rides trying to figure out how they unfolded from their cocooned lorry-laden forms.

Not one, but two Waltzers. This would be a good fair. (The Waltzer is my favourite ride. I can't put my finger on the time I first rode one - it would've been in the eighties - but even now the sight of the cars and the undulating track brings flashback and an unmistakable flutter to my stomach.)

And then, the trailer that caught me by surprise. A show for all the family, it declared, odditys from around the world. Here you were promised "The pig with 6 legs", "The giant bee - as big as a bird" and "Remo the 2-headed boy from Brazil". I'll say this: the signs did their job; I was desperate to see how they could be true. I thought this kind of entertainment died long ago. But perhaps the truth is that only one such exhibit would be on show. My money was on "Mr big mouth from Hull", or maybe the "memento of the Berlin Wall".

If the odditys trailer pointed to the past, the signs on the rougher rides pointed to the litigious present:

Do not ride if you suffer from heart conditions, back or neck problems, vertigo, if you are pregnant, if you are of a nervous disposition or have any other condition that may cause distress whilst on this ride.

I left as the sun started to set above the site, accentuating the freshly painted boards. It's been too long since I was last at a fair in full swing. I'll have to hunt one out.

Anyone for a go on the Waltzer?