carnival dismality.

As a kid, i grew up going to the county fair. i went with my parents and great grandma. My dad's friend owned a funnel cake stand so we always got free funnel cakes, cake-packed with powdered sugar on top. Dad would give me quarters to play the mouse-in-the-hole game. My favorite ride was the scrambler. I also loved the ferris wheel, bumper cars, and carousel ponies.
My great grandma would take me on hot summer afternoons and i got her on the scrambler once, with some coaxing help from the carny. I won the bottle game when i was about 3 feet high, and i took home a stuffed animal taller than me.
There is an appeal to the carnival/county fairs that will always be there, for me it's the colors, and booths of soft serve ice cream cones, elephant ears, beaver tail, FFA ice cream, and lemon shake-ups (although I'm vegan and don't eat it, I love to smell it). And i'm in love with the carousel horses. I still like to go and ride the carousel and play a few games, like the balloon darts. Now I take colorful photographs of the rides and game prizes.
These photographs are of an old run down theme park in Gatlinburg, TN. "Fun Mountain" was closed down and they left the carousel horses there, the swings, tons of games with dusty floaty ducks...I took the photographs 3 years ago when my boyfriend (then) and I wandered up there to the carnival ghost town. It was spookey with a one eyed mechanical beaver in human clothes.