easter show? i wanna go!

so i survived chocolate day..

and being a not really big eater of chocolate, that in itself is always a minor hurdle at this time of year…. but like all major holidays… memories of childhood follies warm the cockles of those long since frozen hearts… and despite the over chocolate indulgence (or maybe because of it??) i felt the growing yearning to retrace my childhood fantasies and go to the easter show.

as my memory painted it.. a fantastic world where anything was possible. the most beautiful of animals, washed and groomed, lined happily in rows, awaiting patting by small children, smiling faces of strangers…all glowing in the joy of the easter holiday, shopping in its highest esteem…at prices soooo low you felt that you had gone on a foreign holiday. goods you could only imagine in your wildest dreams…and the showbags… like the ultimate universe of colour, smell action…as thousands vied for the most amazing treasures known to man…

and of course… as the sun would set an amazing fuzzy glowing peach into an endless crimson sky…you would sit, huddled amongst loved ones in the crisp autumn air…watching the animals, parade like the changing of the palace guard, wow at the stunts of the dare devil precision driving team and of course, stare entirely opened mouthed as the commentators speculated “which colour would go the highest”  in the fireworks finale that lit up the evening sky into a myriad of neon…. sparkling well into the night and on into the years of memories planted in my mind..

such was the innocence and the sheer joy of the easter show…that as i lay moaning of the expanding waistline helped none by the overeating of chocolate, the urge to return to those happy days outweighed the financial strains of an empty wallet.

sun in sky, check, public holiday, check, good company, check…

the bubbles fizzing right to the top as i sat like an impatient child awaiting the train..

the joy of feeling that sun on your face as you emerge from the station and race eager to the entrance gates.

the sounds of animals, people, machines all murmuring, whirring and whizzing in action… the smells of stale food and salted popcorn…beckoning even the most iron clad stomachs, the sights and colours of a thousand people all glowing in the midday sun, heaving their loot of showbags and inane costumery…

but what was missing?

where was my spark?

my anticipation?

like an old hand i dragged myself around. the usual culprits… a little new rust, but otherwise the same..only the prices changed as they grow ever more year by year…

the patting zoo still making me smile like a giddy school girl..but suddenly, a conscience that doesnt allow me to push in to be the first to pat the goat, cuddle the sheep, kiss the cow…

the rows of shiny groomed animals not so much a mystery anymore…but like prisoners awaiting judgement at the slaughter house…their whinnies and neighs no longer yelps of excitement, but groans of contempt and despair.

the array of shopping, not a patch on that which i have tasted in the real world… and prices that even a child prodigy of saving surely couldnt afford.

when did the samples become so expensive?? no longer a sample but an cruel ploy to cyphon your already  strained wallet?

and the showbags…so empty, so lacklustre of joy and mystery… the showbag halls almost like a ghost town as people shun the rought that is paraded before them…

and as the sun set into a bland grey sky..

and my tummy churned from the ingestion of stale meat pies and mystery meat on a stick dipped in congealed sauce and all encapsulated in deep fried scunge with no nutritional value

i settled back to at least watch the evening and and grasp manicly at a dream to relive the happy memories..

but what happened to my grand parade?? no longer an equation of shiny happy animals… but a few cows being dragged around half a field…

the rodeo, while good, lost its sparkle as the crowd is too busy lost in their own worlds to engage with the cheering and banter of the long since should have been retired commentators…

and as the thrill of the precision driving team fizzled into a routine of the “same old” i at least settled back holding my breath for the fireworks magic to reignite that long last spark i sought…

instead??

the fireworks themselves, sold out to the perils of consumerism.

sold out to the capitilist world..

no longer was it a conquest for each colour to go the highest…but instead each colour, maticulously designed to bow down to the sponsorship that had been shamelessly flaunted all night…

and as the blue matched the sky in the picture of our sponsors logo, the yellow of the sun and the green of the grass… parents were re reminded to go forth and buy the prescribed product.

when did we lose our innocence??

or is it just me?? a pure heart tainted by cynicism?

or maybe it really has reached that time in my life..where i need to accept my own childhood is ceasing and it is time to kidnap someone else’s kids in order to relive any fragments of it which may remain in a confused and capitalist world.

yet regardless the answer. regardless how much more magic may dissolve as years go by… i still managed to wear my ridiculous wig…hold my head high and at least aim to be, one of those sparkling fragments of memory and colour, smiles and laughter in the new formed memories of some other child… our hope now really is on the innocence and sparks of joy of our children and if we dont eat least try to give them just an inkling of the magic of the world from which we have grown up from…what hope does tomorrow really have?

so dust off your favourite teddy bear… put on that silly hat. you may have grown up. your memories may have been sold out…but you can still be a part of that magic that just may make the smile of some other persons life and be a part of the little spark that they too may carry into their own future..

and thus the magic of easter shall live on…

easter show?

yeah, i still want to go…

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