gunpowder pinhole

warning: this is too long to be one entry. you know how little kids see something exciting and then tell you about it in meandering, stream of consciousness? proceed at your own risk. loads of photos toward the end.

disclaimer: polaroid pinhole photos were rephotographed on a digital camera and downloaded. editing was hasty.

those of you who have been visiting a while will remember the very first post, about "arkville holiday", a confusing little wonder involving firemen, bbq, fireworks and santa all on the 27th of december. well, i don't mean to alarm you, but that's not the only time of year we get a fireworks combo. that's right. the fourth of july, done up margaretville style, is not to be sneezed at. and, of course, there are firemen. and bbq, though santa was nowhere to be seen. in his place there's a no joke, bona fide carnival.

here's the deal. the carnival busts loose on the first. we went over to the field behind the a&p around dark. there were clusters of folks milling around brightly lit rides, none of which seemed to be going. that was not a problem. most everybody was deeply involved in some sort of carnival food- cotton candy, funnel cakes, fried vegetables, lemonade, sausage and peppers. a few were trying to win things at those games of skill. the prizes were impressive. almost nothing was a cartoon character. this sort of thing repeats itself until friday, when the entire town takes off from work in anticipation of the day's festivities. starting with the flea market. now, the flea market is a lot like most. it's outside on a field between arkville and margaretville, sort of across from the local hospital. it has plenty of folding tables full of stuff like twenty year old used hair mousse and lots of broken kitchen utensils. and farm implements. and wagon wheels. the local army navy place has a little booth, complete with a display of guns "not for sale". heh. but on the fourth of july, the flea market transforms. it takes on a level of seriousness and excitement that truly makes it worth taking a day off to see. so we did.

generally, folks park at a pull out on the side of route 28, with space for maybe ten cars. but on this special day, cars were lined up along both sides of the road, parked in the lot of a semi-defunct restaurant and even on the grass near the edge of the market. we walked over to the first "booth", which was mostly a bunch of junk lying on the grass. the folks at the flea market appear to have limited marketing and display skills. this doesn't matter when you're selling stuff for a buck, but when you slap a $300 sticker on a rusted saw, you better make it look pretty. and they don't. but back to the first booth. junk on the ground. and then the puzzles. 33 jigsaw puzzles, all assembled, lying on the ground. i'm not joking. mostly outdoor scenes. village scenes. at first i thought they were mounted on something and meant to be used as art. nope. just put together for folks to look at. that way you can see all the pieces are there and you can see what you get in the end. brilliant. disturbing.

there was a table near the middle with an old microscope. it sat on a wooden board next to some other lab looking equipment and had a $25 tag on it. i might have mentioned before my love of microscopes and my need to have old, busted up junk all scattered around. it was a raggedy, dusty mess. the sweetie wasn't too sure. he loves the old, busted up junk as well, but in this new house, he likes his busted up junk a little nicer than what we've had in the past. the thing about the sweetie is, no matter how raggedy an object is, if it has working mechanical parts and he can fix it up and get it going, he can be convinced that we need it. he was. so i forked over my $25 and it was at this moment i realized the microscope was mounted on a board and the strange little machine next to it was coming home, too. this, for me, is the equivalent of spying a dollar on the street and realizing it's a five while picking it up. i was worried someone would find out what we had before we escaped with it. we got it home where i freed both machines from the board and shined them up a bit. the sweetie got things working and in no time at all we'll be gazing at pond water and fly wings under the thing.

but i forgot about the firemen. the margaretville firemen do not have brooks bbq cater their field days. they make their own. on the lot across from the a&p there was a mile long grill with several firemen tending half chickens and there were some folks standing at little booths scattered randomly (and with no clear indication of what's going on) over this parking lot and on into the park behind the grocery. i think we counted five places to buy chicken, none of which said anything even resembling "hey, buy chicken here!". but it doesn't matter. if you want the chicken, you'll find it. and for $7.50, these folks will slap half a chicken in a styrofoam box and toss in a roll and two sides (i got beans for both mine). i have been known to be squeamish about food, but for some reason, seeing the guy grab a half chicken out of a large cardboard box covered with tin foil didn't stop me from digging in on the walk across the street.yes, before we sat down i was chewing on chicken in the street. and there will me more again today. they are not joking around with this whole field days thing. judging from the amount of folks i saw gnawing on half chickens, margaretville firemen will be able to buy a whole new set of trucks. perhaps they will sell the old ones at the flea market. i know someone who needs one.

but we still aren't to the main event. the fireworks. now, we live about a mile from margaretville, just down the road on route 28 and we hopped in the car around 9 for the 9:30 show. we knew to expect something pretty swanky from the arkville holiday experience and we wanted to get a good seat. we did not understand the event at all. we underestimated everything. we turned right off our own road onto 28 and within a few yards we saw cars parked along the side. some folks were walking along the dark road toward margaretville and the a&p while others were just sitting in lawn chairs in the backs of trucks or on the ground between cars. the flea market grounds were packed and the little rise where the hospital sits was covered with families on blankets. like times square on new year's eve. i'm not exaggerating. except without any of the nastiness. no yelling. no honking. and our car was going forward. confusing. we decided to go for it. we kept driving, taking a right into margaretville, crossing the river and going past the a&p. and we drove up into town. now, margaretville is like many small towns. it's small. once you get off the main street it's just houses and churches and sidewalks. so we drove toward the back end of town, which is pretty much four blocks from the front end, and we parked. we didnt' really know where things would be so we followed the stream of folks with lawn chairs and blankets. we had our own blanket and a couple of cameras with a tripod. this will be important later. the trail led us to an alley up behind the big trucks the carnival people live in. there were plastic lawn chairs scattered near the side doors of the trucks, but everything else was shut up tight against the mass of townfolks. we kept walking.

and then the road went right up to a roped off clearing with every human being for fifty miles packed in. this is where i mention i'm not so good with crowds. i know i've spent the last ten years in nyc. still, not good with crowds. but fireworks is a whole other kettle of fish, so we pressed on. there was a little open space on the ground right at the edge of the road and we plopped our stuff down. a woman and a young girl were selling glow sticks, which we clearly needed. they're still glowing this morning. we faced ourselves the direction everyone else was facing and the dark finally got serious. we were looking at a small rise where a tiny building with the sign "margaretville water dept." on it hunched down. when i say tiny, think shed. from behind margaretville water dept. it started. fireworks like you only read about. and, just like at arkville holiday, they echo off the mountains in crazy ways. you can feel them exploding in your insides. and we had managed to wander into front row center seating. the sweetie took photos with the digital camera, long exposures with brilliant color. i had the pinhole camera on a tripod, exposing the film for a minute or more. the whole explosion thing lasted at least 30 minutes, during which time if you craned your neck you could see a terrifying red cloud just behind the margaretville water dept. sinsiter. perfect.

after the fireworks we went strolling around the carnival, looking for places to set up the pinhole camera. we found plenty. and each time, some fortysomething guy, kid in tow, would look at us shyly for a minute, then ask, "is that a... a... pinhole camera or something?" in the manner of a ten year old boy with a crush. yes. it is. although i'm not prone to generalizations, especially those about men or women, i feel comfortable saying men of a certain age get all stupid over cameras they don't have, especially if they hearken back to something from their youth. i'd show the photos and they'd ask more questions. one guy had a child who is, i'm sure, in regular contact with the original supernatural nephew. he was keenly interested in cameras and had his own digital at home. he looked at the photos, gazed at the camera (at seven, he could already recognize the beauty in a simple, functional object- clearly a superpower) and cried, "that's exactly the camera i've been wanting!" of course it is. a wooden camera with no lens and a polaroid back. the very camera. so i agreed with him. his dad laughed and said they'd maybe try an oatmeal box pinhole. but i figure if you're buying a seven year old digital cameras, you've got the cash to buy him something really beautiful. something that will not be easy. something without a viewfinder, so he will have to find his own way. something that will require him to be very still and count, maybe as high as 300. that kid needs a camera like mine for real. the way he doesn't yet know he needs fireworks. and carnival rides. and chicken made by firemen.