The Ekka

August 10th

The Queensland Royal Show.
The Ekka.
It can only be good.

I'm working for my friend Tom's business, Divine Donuts, serving up organic coffee and doughnuts. Perhaps not your typical carny fare, but I'm claiming carny status nonetheless.

I have died and gone to heaven.
I don't know exactly what it says about me that my vision of a personal heaven is working at an Exhibition. But it can only be good.

What sparked this childhood dream? Could have been my dad's reading of Charlotte's Web a couple times when I was young. [There are no piglets at the Ekka this year for fear that they'll catch swine flu from the humans.] I have sparkling clear memories of my first Albert County Fair: the animals, candy apples, a ride on the Ferris Wheel at night.

Then there was the herald of summer: The Bill Lynch Show. The midway. We never knew exactly when it was coming to town -- The Blinch, as my brother and I called it -- and then one day, bam! it was there. The Coliseum parking lot transformed, full of rides and stands and trailers.
Just driving past, I could feel the stickiness of the ground under my feet, the hot sweet smell of fresh candy floss, the teenage screams from The Zipper, the unnatural scrawniness of the AC/DC lovin' operator of The Gravitron, sporting his Confederate flag sleeveless shirt.
And at night: the lights, oh the lights!

One summer, a carny at the Ex in Toronto showed me the trick to his particular game, having me practice over and over until I could get it right, explaining the importance of confidence and nonchalance in equal measures. I left instilled with a sense of innate carny-potential and spent the remainder of our family vacation working on my carny barking skills, no doubt to the delight of my parents. After all, what more could a mum and dad want for their 11 year old daughter?

***

"What are Show Bags?"
"How can you not know what Show Bags are?!"
"Um... "

Carlie and Sally are shocked -- shocked! -- my I-don't-think-we-have-them-in-Canada explanation hardly satisfactory. Clearly, I must be mistaken.

"They're the best part of the Ekka! When you're a kid, you spend ages going through the Show Bag list in the newspaper..."
"The newspaper?"
"Yeah! So you can decide exactly which ones you want and make a wish list. The Bertie Beetle ones are the best, especially since the stopped selling the Bertie Beetle candies in stores. Now you can only get them in the Bertie Beetle Show Bags."

I still don't get it. I do, however, enjoy how many times Sally has just said Bertie Beetle.
"I bet the list is up on the website!"
Sure enough, over a hundred different themed bags to choose from, with every imaginable kind of loot from candy to toys to lingerie to fishing gear.

We peruse the list, oo-ing and ah-ing over the endless options.
I still don't really get it.