Round and Round We Go

In Santa Cruz the kids went on a merry go round because big brother Bruce said on the boardwalk, it’s a cool thing to do. He said sometimes the dumbest rides are the best, and he explained why it’s the one he and his friends like to go on. It’s not a regular merry go round where you just merry go round. It’s a special one where as you round this one turn there are gold rings coming out of this metal arm and you have to grab one from the snapper hand that holds them and then hurl it into this clown’s tiny mouth that’s on a board against the wall. All while spinning at a pace too fast to do any of this without breaking your arm off.
I saw Bess, 9 years old, and her face as she went round and round, mouth fixed in tight concentration. This was no merry go round.This was merry go serious. Stressful go round. Frustration Go Round.
The carousel seemed to spin faster and angrier the more turns it took where she passed the metal arm and wasn’t able to grab the gold ring fast enough out of the metal snapper claw that dispenses them. I saw Bruce handing his back to her around the far turn so that she could have a ring and throw it the next time around. Luckily there is a big brother willing to give up his rings.
She kept trying and her face kept getting smaller and smaller with the effort. The enjoyment of the thing would have been great if there had been a cavernous clown mouth and bean bags to throw in there. But this was like a professional situation and you had to have been a practicing archer your entire life to be able to hang on spinning, wrestle the ring, and throw immediately, to get anywhere near the clown’s mouth.
Round after round I saw her dwindling enjoyment. She likes to win, and when not winning, whining. But in this case the whining was silent, all inward, as it turned into just plain losing. No funnel cake in the world would be big enough to fill in this depression.
Off the ride, the bigger kids were exalted from the trying, but the little one was chagrined at not being able to get the ring. If it didn’t cost $5 every ride, we could have tried all night but poverty and disappointment are a sad honeymoon couple. She did keep one ring. She showed me the shiny ring with shiny eyes.
Then as we left, she passed it to a kid waiting in the line to go on.