If there's one thing that can remind us how time flies and yet how some things seem to stand still, it's a local community tradition. For us, it's our annual July 4th carnival, a major fundraiser for our volunteer fire squad.Held on a small field that spends most of the year overgrown and open, (and an excellent place to let dogs run), the carnival anticipation starts when we see the volunteers out there mowing. The banner goes up over the bridge, the rides seem to show up magically and suddenly it's carnival time again.

For an event with few rides and a layout you can walk in five minutes, it can generate up to 6000 visitors on a good night--the good nights being 'bracelet night,' when kids can ride all night without using up their college funds, and fireworks night. And for a teeny town, they put on a damn good show. One thing that never ever changes is the food. Believe it or not, aside from the usual fare, our landlocked carnival is known for its steamed clams.

Now here's the thing about time. I've been visiting the carnival for 23 years-- from the time my older son was in a stroller. With only a few exceptions, I've been there every year. I watched my kids graduate from the kiddy rides to the big boy rides, from us winning stuffed animals for them to them winning stuffed animals for me. From very long bracelet nights of ride after ride to keeping a watchful out for roving bands of young thugs---yup...my kids and their friends.

The last few years, I'm lucky if I catch glimpses of them as they do their quick carnival tours before going on to more sophisticated recreation. And this year, one's moved away from home and one never made it to the carnival at all.

But new generations have assumed the mantle. The parents pushing strollers are almost young enough to be my kids. A whole new crop of toddlers shriek on the tiny rides that move not much faster than their strollers do. And everywhere are clusters of teens and almost teens; the boys strutting for the girls, the girls giggling behind their hands. I don't know any of these kids, but I do.

The same way that the 85 year-old ex-mayor knows a lot of us---grownups he can look at and see the children they were. The carnival's over 75 years old....he was in one of those roaming bands once upon a time.

The first night this year, we strolled over for our annual funnel-cake gluttony. It was early yet, not much of a crowd. But I'll tell you who was there---a whole mess of baby boomer parents, whose kids are long gone and whose bracelet nights are a memory. We say we come for some steamed clams or a plate of sausage and peppers. We say we were out for a walk anyway. But we're really there to watch time fly by us and stand still simultaneously. We're there to remember the kids' first ferris wheel or the $20 bucks we shelled out or the cotton candy that fell on the ground. Maybe we relive the nights the babies fell asleep before fireworks only to be awakened by bombs bursting in air or the night we lost a 7-year old in the crowd, only to find her on the hay ride.

The volunteer firefighters and supporters work hard to make the carnival a success each year and it raises a lot of money for our small volunteer fire department. Maybe some of them were kids the first time they attended. And I bet that for them, as well as for us, the first scent of funnel cake or the first notes of country music from the loudspeakers are as evocative as touching your baby's soft hair for the first time or standing as your child graduates from college.

And long after we're gone, that sugary smell and the clanky music will still drift across town for five nights a year.

Hello

I was thinking on the same lines, except I was thinking more on health, and how I feel about the Baby Boomers being as young as the 40 year olds today. I want to know if there is more to the story on what was eaten to help you all to be as healthy and alive as you are now. What difference is it that you did or did not have? Can you help me? I want to do some research on this topic.