The annual carnival in Oakland is the best in New Jersey, if not the nation, or even the world for that matter. It’s the best for lots of reasons, but mostly because it is held in Oakland. The Public Events Committee brought it all together once again to provide residents with a hometown event that for many helps supplement shortened or missed vacations.
In many ways it’s even better than a vacation.Summer vacation trips offer a change of face from the workplace or neighborhood. It is the carnival though, with small rides, familiar games, and traditional sugary and unhealthy food fare that actually offers a return to purity. A middle class population worn down by economic woes and awash in political propaganda can find respite in the wonder of a child’s eye or the nostalgia of their own memory.
There are always a few seasonal workers, or ‘carnies’, who bring flavor to their positions as stewards of rides or games. This year it was the roller coaster man who gave it his all with foot stomping, hand waving, cries and shouts, “Andale! Andale!.” Making an exciting children’s ride exciting for everybody in ear shot. The goldfish man offered a softer sell but no less effective as scores of children left the carnival with bagged fish, perhaps for many the first creature to be called a pet. Perhaps the first time they will have an opportunity to learn about love and loss in life.
While colorful characters travel with the carnival from town to town, it is the people of Oakland that make it the best. The children and adults working booths for a retinue of civic organizations bring the local flavor that tastes the best. Food, snacks, sodas or treats, it is an affirmation of the town spirit to see the yellow and white booths lining the perimeter with familiar faces on deck raising money that goes right back into the community. While vacations from home allow us to see ourselves in a different context, the carnival allows us to see each other in a different context.
There is pure joy in a child’s face as they find friends normally only seen in school or day camps, running through the crowd together from ride to ride. For adults, it’s seeing friends, neighbors, associates and firing off neurons trying to match a face with a place, and then the satisfying grin when the process brings forth a friendly memory. And it is memories, along with goldfish, stuffed animals, and inflatables, that we bring home at the end of the night. And it is a good reminder for every day, long after the carnival has pulled out of town.
The carnival will come again, and the children today will most likely ride again on one ride or another, but some will pass an age when the rides stop. It is not like a first job, or first day of high school, or a graduation, the last amusement ride comes on unexpectedly, and suddenly it is the memories, it is nostalgia, it is a fleeting time of purity in amusement that is relished. Whatever ride you are on today, at work, at home, or out and about town, try to make it a good one; look to make today a good memory for tomorrow.
As for the rain, it didn’t stop the fireworks that took place after a mass exodus and temporary traffic jam. The hearty souls who stayed were treated to magical display, and those soaked in their cars can recall the American educator and poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:
Be still sad heart and cease repining;
Behind the clouds the sun is shining,
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life a little rain must fall…
Below is a video by GuhanSivaji of the fireworks.