Sweet Corn

It is a yearly tradition. The Hoopeston Sweet Corn Festival sneeks up on me. It completly slips my mind, and suddenly it's here.
And I loath the thought.
It works like this: I dread going, I enjoy the time mildly while we're there, and I hate having gone. I miss the money that went into the pockets of the vendors and the carnival bosses. Given the sheer number of kids we take, we can never get out of Hoopeston for less than a hundred dollars. And that's limiting the kids to three or four rides.
Yesterday, it cost about $3.00 each to ride the merry go round. $2 to go down the slide below.
And yesterday marked a big milestone in the saga of yearly carnival trips. But the kids have a great time, and look forward to it for weeks. And part of the proceeds go to a good cause.
For the first time in at least ten years, I was not required to escort a child down the big slide. I must admit a sense of loss while recording the kids coming down without me. While I look forward to thier growing years, watching these milestones pass and knowing that no more are coming to fill in the space is sad.
To say all of the above in short: I'm getting old.
And I post the movie below simply because I can. Yes, it's a crappy video taken from my Cingular 8525. But I smile every time when I watch Jeremiah come down on his back, laughing all the way.