Houghton Feast

[turps]

Coming home from school I saw that the illuminations are going up for Houghton Feast. That's a sort of mini festival that our town has every year. A fair comes, a small carnival, road races, street entertainment etc. They roast what's supposed to be an ox and people go for sandwiches sliced from the ox that's been roasted on a spit. They do this as Bernard Gilpen, the famous guy of our town killed an ox and fed it to the poor people in the distant past. Which is why Houghton has this weird looking ox thing as part of its crest *g*

I loved Houghton feast when I was a kid. Everyone used to talk about it, getting so buzzed about the fair coming. I remember on the Friday, the first night, walking from my house with my mam, dad and brother. It was getting dark but there was magic in the air as you walked along streets that looked so different from normal. We passed the same shops that we did every day, but when they were lit up by the coloured lights, and you could hear the fair in the distance it seemed different somehow. We'd always get a pomegranate, shoving them in our pockets for when we got home and could eat them with a pin. Then we'd watch the opening festival, the church lit up by spotlights as we waved at friends. We'd go to the fair and my dad would take us on scary rides and Chris and I would eat chips and candy floss. We'd be shattered when we got home, but happy because there was still the carnival the next day, and the fireworks on the Monday.

The programmes still the same, on Friday we'll go to the opening night. It's not the same, it can't be, when you grow you see how shabby the lights are, and moan at how expensive it is to buy tatty junk that'll break in days and go on rides that cost a fortune. But see there's still some magic, Corey is excited about the fair coming, and he'll go down and eat chips, and go on rides despite them being far too expensive. It'll rain, it always does, and the field where the fair is held will be a massive bog that tries to suck your shoes off. He'll come home with toys that are priced ten times their worth just so he can 'win' them. And he'll think Houghton Feast is magic too, just like I used to.

As for me, I'll listen on a night as the sounds of the fair carry on the breeze, and know that autumn, my favourite season, has started. Then make plans to eat chips and spend far too much money.

LOL, I started to fall into story telling mode then, must stop doing that.