You won’t always remember when you and your brothers came up with those idiotic categories for all worldly pleasures, but you will always remember what they were: Toys, Candy, Games, and Rides. According to you three nitwits, all the best things in life could be filed neatly under one of those four headings. Let’s look at them, shall we? Toys. That one is pretty self-explanatory, but given the right situation could also include: sticks, mud, rocks, snowballs, paper airplanes, and just about anything else. Candy? This is a broad category as well, and one that could include: Popcorn, Chips, Ice Cream, A&W Root Beer, Cookies, Fizzies, Hotdogs and just about any other tasty edible. Games include: Tic-Tac-Toe, Checkers, Marbles, Ring-Around-the-Rosie, Tag, or simply driving Mom nuts on a hot summer afternoon. But the most clear-cut of the categories was always Rides…as in Amusement Park Rides. And slowly, over the last several years, it has become your favorite. You’ve always liked amusement park rides, haven’t you? And you always will, even when you’re an old man in the distant future.

We both remember riding the little train at Kiddieland, which was in the parking lot at the Southgate Shopping Center. That was fun for a while but you outgrew it years ago. Pony rides at company picnics were sort of interesting too, except the ponies only walked in circles, smelled like poop, and looked sad. And the midway at State Fair Park always guaranteed a good time. But the best of all remains the Muskego Beach amusement park on Little Muskego Lake. It’s close to an hour’s drive from your home in West Allis, and that makes it all the more exciting. The distance makes it a rare treat, and the rarity makes it extraordinary.

You’ve been at the park all day with a school friend and his family and it’s been great! The weather has been perfect: not a cloud in sight and sunlight sparkling like a galaxy on the lovely blue lake. You and your buddy have been on nearly every ride on the midway—some of them, more than once. You’ve been on the Dodgem,’ the Wild Mouse, the Walking Charlie, the Screwball, the Bubble Bounce, and the great Tail Spin roller coaster! The Bubble Bounce was clearly a mistake and you almost lost your cookies, but did you learn your lesson? Of course you didn’t. You’ll take your chances with that vile apparatus on a subsequent visit…and live to regret it. But will you heed this warning?

Nope.

You’ll be heading home soon, but maybe there’s just enough time for a last stroll through the midway. You’ve never been to the park past sundown before, so I can see you’re caught off-guard by the transformation. The neon and dancing tracer lights, which have been on throughout the day become magical things at night, turning the place into a kaleidoscopic multi-colored dreamscape. Rock & Roll, a still-recent phenomenon in your life, is blaring from speakers all through the park until it feels like your heart is pumping to the beat. One moment it’s Follow That Dream by Elvis, then Sheila by Tommy Roe. And when Del Shannon’s Runaway is playing it almost seems like a power source driving the entire midway.

Then there are the teenagers. They seem to have sprung spontaneously from the darkness and are impossible to overlook. Yes, you are about to enter your teenage years too, but it’s difficult to square your current self-image with these exotic specimens. They look like grown ups, and in a sense they are. After all, these creatures can DRIVE! The boys walk with a certain self-confident swagger. You’re practicing that walk right now, aren’t you? Go ahead, no one will notice. You’re taking note also of the way they dress and the way they wear their hair. Can you picture yourself in blue jeans and leather jackets? I know you’re trying. How about the hair? With your usual summer crew cut, it’s a little hard to picture it long and greasy, swept back into a soaring pompadour and tapering to a ducktail. You notice that they re-comb their hair every 30 seconds or so, and you wonder if your teenage coif will require such attention.

And now you’re checking out their dates, aren’t ya? With their pert ponytails, bobby socks, poodle skirts, and tight sweaters!

Wait…since when do you pay attention to girls’ sweaters?!? Oh no! It’s not that summer, is it? Yeah, I guess it is. Well there’s no reasoning with you now, kiddo. You’re on your own. Something has happened to your inner wiring and for the foreseeable future you will have about as much control over it as a moth has when it flies into a flame. You are on the verge of discovering something that simply will not fit into one of your four categories. Trust me on that one.

Sometime in the future, some Rock & Roller will sing a song called, Love is a Battlefield. Cool song, you’ll love it. But the truth is, Love is more of a minefield, and the tripwires are everywhere. But…oh, never mind. You’ll learn soon enough. Just know that there will come a day when you’ll smile at how easy it all looked tonight on the Muskego Beach midway. And you’ll want to keep that magical image alive for as long as you can.

Muskego Beach    1992    John T. McCarthy, Jr.    8-color silkscreen

 Note to those of us who reside in the future. Here are the links to the songs mentioned:

Follow That Dream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPGd2kqvziQ

Sheila: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93Ll2frWOB4

Runaway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPdihUTYk90