Treasure: Abandoned Moment
Dig site: The Kansas State Fair, an annual event in Hutchinson, Kansas, just North of the Love Meter, about fifteen feet East of a strength-testing game where players punch a mechanical sensor with all they’ve got, trying to beat their buddies’ high scores.
Retail value: Three dollars.
Appeal: Why didn’t this couple wait for their portraits to develop, I wonder. Two and half minutes, the machine’s advertised processing time, is hardly a wait for a record of a day of Tilt-A-Whirl, livestock exhibitions, and funnel cakes under a shady tree with your sweetheart. Did they go at it in the photo booth, only to be whisked away by security? It seems impossible that two people might simply forget why they’re staring at a small chute, waiting for something to happen. Did he propose to her while she tapped impatiently on the aluminum wall of the booth? Were they in the pick-up truck, bee-lined for Vegas, by the time I found their captured visages?
—
Care to Share?
Consider posting a note of comment on this item:
—§—
Previous Post
« Some Beds I’ve Slept In, Part Two
—
Reader Comments
Holy Hell! That’s my Pa! And that gal in the swimmun suit was lyin on her back bleedin’ from her head after Ma done tore that curtain off th’ booth. Ma was madder than a wet goat, I’ll tell ya. She took the sharp stick out my candied apple and hollered, “Dead bitch! Ya better git on back to Geary where your kind blongs, whorin’ and cheatin’.”
The po-lice come and took Ma after she used that apple stick on that Ho’s head. Pa just cried and cried…and he’s still drinkin.…
Thanks, Jum, my curiousity was killing me.