August 26, 1982

Back in the summer of 1982 I was still living in my parents’ house and getting ready to start my second year of college at Sacramento State University. At the end of August, my nephew Kevin came up from Southern California for a visit, and I wrote a little bit in my journal about some of the places we went together — like the day Mom and I took him to the State Fair. We had fun going on the rides, and we shot a few photos; but looking at Kevin’s expression in some of them, I have to wonder how much fun he was actually having! Besides my mom’s slides, I’ve included three prints that I shot with my camera that day and a few quotes from my journal.

Meeting Barney Rubble from The Flintstones

On the Ferris wheel

[Kevin] was afraid of the Ferris wheel at first and started crying, but by the time we got off he was yelling “Whee!” every time it went around. He didn’t like the log ride, though. He wanted to ride the ponies and was okay at first, but then his pony got a little behind and jogged to catch up, and he got unhappy. Every time he rode past Mom and me, he’d say, “Gramma, I want to get off now.”

We almost rode the Skywheel, but at the last moment he got scared and changed his mind. Mom and I found our favorite ride, the Scrambler. We had a hard time getting Kevin to go on it, but he ended up liking it.

Even though some of the bigger rides were intimidating for smaller kids, I do remember that Kevin got sort of bored going around in circles on the rides meant for children. He was a good sport about it — but every time we asked him what he wanted to do next, he’d point to the Scrambler and tell us, “I want to go on the scary ride again!”