Happy Mid spring, my fellow Observers! Yes, that's right, spring is officially half over this week and already signs of summer are popping up all over the place. Longer days, the smell of cut grass, wasps and bees buzzing around your head, flowers outside all of the stores, the smell of fertilizer inside all of the stores, kids running out in front of cars and after ice cream trucks.....Ahhhhh... the warm weather is finally here after a long winter that did not want to loosen it's grip on the northeast this year. And lets not forget the outside activities. Picnics, sports, parades, car shows, and my favorites.... carnivals and the circus coming to town. Especially if one of them (or both) have a sideshow at the end of their midway. I love a good sideshow... who doesn't? The barker, the lights, the teasers performing outside of the entrance compelling you to "step right up" and slap down your money down to go inside and see the rest of the acts that are on the canvas posters hanging out front. Who can ever forget the "Rubber Man", The Bearded Lady, The "Wolf" Boy, The Human Blockhead, the snake charmer, The "Missing Link", the tattooed lady, the sword swallowers, the fire eaters, and my all time favorite Gloria "The Great" who changed from a woman to a gorilla right before your very eyes! My money was out of my pocket and at the ready 50 feet from the ticket booth. Then, on the inside, watching these acts as wide eyed with amazement as only a boy could be. Yes, my loyal reader, I love a good sideshow! Problem is there don't seem to be a lot of them around anymore. This seems to be happening a lot with things I remember from my youth. I seem to be a man who is losing his past faster than he is acquiring his future. People keep telling me I'm trading up and things are better now a days, but I'm having a hard time believing them. If that's the truth, then why do I have this nagging feeling like I'm losing something in the process?
Seems to me the things we are trading up for are not as tangible as they used to be. Sure, I can watch Freakshow on AMC and look at sideshow acts online till my oddity loving hearts content, but it's nowhere near the same thing. Remember when we got into a car as a family and actually went somewhere..... to do something? Does anyone recall the conversations that we had with each other during the trip... you know..... talking? Instead of texting each other in the same house, if not the same room. Seriously..... I've seen parents doing this with their kids in restaurants for chrissakes! So, this stuff is so much better, huh? I have more fun getting a prostate exam. At least I get out of the house for a while and there is a certain amount of conversation.
What I can't figure out is why we are so eager to trade social interaction for social media. The only answer that comes to mind is that it's easier for us. If there is one thing I've Observed about human nature is that people will do anything if they think it makes things easier for them even if it doesn't work as well.... It's easier.... so I'll do it that way. Irony spoiler alert.... Most animals follow the same pattern. (Puts the expression "dumb animals" in a whole new light... doesn't it?)
I don't have to talk to my kids..... easier.... they can hate me just as much in cyberspace.
I don't have to deal with my boss.... easier.... he can fire me via email.
I don't have to drag my butt to the post office.... easier.... can I print out Disney stamps?
I don't need to go to the grocery store.... easier....I hope they're not out of Oreos.
All these things done for us, brought to us, told to us, given to us so we never have to leave the house. And we find this appealing? Really? Ok, explain to me why then our senior citizens don't jump at any opportunity to join an assisted living community. You'd think that they would be chomping at the Geritol bit just waiting to meet the minimum age requirement.
Time has a way of not only changing everyday things, it can alter the way that we perceive them. There is nothing more complicated than our own perception. Every generation to date has seen change either by perception, technology or both. Motion pictures changed the way we looked at Vaudeville. TV changed our perception of radio. The internet forever changed our use of libraries. It is a never ending process and who knows how the next generations perception will be changed and to what end. The only thing we can all hope for is that the majority of these changes will be for the better. As of late, I believe there are a few more checks in the minority column.
Maybe it's just a sign of the times. Animal rights activists have all but done away with circus acts. In some cases they were justified, in most they weren't. Although their intentions may have been thought noble, they were a little late in their "captive animal" sermons since most of the circus animals they were squawking their "animals should be free" PETA dogma about had been born in captivity for generations. Insurance underwriters and huge corporate funded "amusement" parks have just about put the small traveling carnivals out of business. And the ones that are still around only have "safe" rides while 6 Flags have ones that give you a catch cup for your eyeballs at the entrance gate..... and vomit shields.....I want a vomit shield! I think a good promotion for these places would be to offer a free AD&D insurance policy with every 5th $269.75 ticket purchased. Now that's an incentive to bring the whole family out!
As far as the Sideshows fading to only a faint memory for some of us, I'm really not sure why. Maybe because without being attached to some "big brother" carnival or circus they can't financially stand on their own. Although the "brothers" that still exist don't seem to have them "attached" anymore. It certainly isn't because our mentality has evolved. My 6 year old daughter watches stuff on YouTube that puts the Freakshows of my youth to shame. Five Nights At Freddie's alone is enough to give me nightmares. That never happened with the "two headed" calf. The best reason I can rationalize is that we don't need them any more. Sideshows are all around us now and our perception of them has changed without us even realizing it. We get our daily dose of them with Jerry, Maury, Steve, Bill,Cops and Discovery ID. We hear about them in our schools tainted with gunfire. We learn about them in our government with scandals and lies. We see them in our neighborhoods with domestic violence. Not only has our perception changed, it has evolved as well. We are no longer content with being entertained by the shock of witnessing the unusual, but rather by the reality of the pain and torment endured by others. Strictly an Observation. If you'll excuse me, I have to put another check in the minority column.
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