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How the Festivals started in Appendix
Quin laughed again, “Okay dad. I’ll try to keep that in mind. Hey speaking of stories, tell me again what the deal is with Appendix being the Carnival Capital of the World.” Quin was fishing for more information to further expand his repertoire when he returned to campus.
Buzz began again with obvious relish, “Well no doubt Quin, you have heard this story before, but as you have probably noticed, I do not get tired from telling a story or two. Here is what happened as best as I can recall. A long time ago in the early 1900's or so, there was this guy from Appendix named Arnie Wondermaker, now he would be the grandson of the gambler with the burst organ from your mother’s charming story.”
“Anyway, Wondermaker, who was this traveling carnival type of guy, would go around to all the county fairs in Michigan and some in Indiana and Ohio as well. At the fairs he would do this entertaining one-man vaudeville show. As time went by he attracted all the freaks and misfits from practically the whole surrounding three counties and his show grew and people would travel from all over the place to see Wondermaker and the most wondrous show on earth.” Buzz spread his hands as if he were spreading out a banner.
“So Wondermaker and his freaks started traveling all over the Midwest doing their shows. They continued until the 1920's by which time Wondermaker was rich, but older and getting tired of all the travel and growing nostalgic for Appendix. So he decided to quit traveling and set his roots back down in Appendix. He fired all but his two favorite freaks, one of which was his wife who was really quite beautiful and only freakish in the sense that she could contort her body in about a hundred different directions or so.” Buzz looked particularly gleeful as he described Wondermakers wife.
“Buzz Holsten!” Linda snorted, “I declare you are incorrigible. Did you forget that I was sitting right here?”
Buzz laughed loudly, “I could never forget that my darling. Anyway, Quin the other freak was the brother of his wife so Wondermaker really couldn’t fire him. These three together setup Wondermaker Incorporated and started making portable fair booths and carnival games. They started out being quite successful and expanded. In about three years half the town was working for Wondermaker Incorporated. Then, they branched out into making Ferris Wheels and carousels.”
“Just before the depression took hold of Appendix, Wondermaker decided to invite his old freaks and their friends back to town for what he called a carnival get –together. See Wondermaker thought that these people were always out on the road performing in carnivals, running the rides and whatnot, so that they never really got to just enjoy a carnival for themselves. So his brilliant idea was to throw a Carnival for the Carnies.”
“So in August, here they all came, all the old freaks and their friends, and they had a high old time camping outside the town and partying with old Wondermaker. From that first gathering, it became something of an annual event. It grew a little bit every year. Even after Old Wondermaker had to shut down Wondermaker Incorporated during the depression, the freaks kept on coming, year after year. The town elders in the 40's saw a chance to put Appendix on the map and made the carnival get-together an official yearly event. They followed up that stroke of genius by declaring Appendix, the Carnival Capital of the world. I think it was the same year that they also changed the school mascot from whatever it was before to the Fighting Carnies. So that, Quin, is why whenever you used to run out onto the old Appendix gym floor, there was that big old picture of that mean looking old man standing in front of that Ferris Wheel." Quin smiled thinking about the old Appendix gym floor.
“Quin, my boy, it is very good to have you home for Thanksgiving, and I have loved spinning these yarns. But morning comes very early, and these old bones are tired. See you in the morning. My darling, are you going to join me in the bedroom?”
“Yes Buzz,” Linda said feigning exasperation. She got up and walked over and gave Quin a peck on the cheek, “Quin it really is very good to have you home. It’s great to have someone else who can listen to your dad. I swear that man can talk for hours. Who needs TV? ”
Quin chuckled, “Thanks mom. It’s good to be here.”
Later that night, as Quin lay in bed and thought about the stories that his dad had told him, he envisioned himself telling the stories back at school at the parties. He began to plan how he would start talking about Appendix being the Carnival Capitol of the World. Then he made a plan to go to the old high school some time over the weekend, and see if he could snag some of the old Fighting Carnie workout jerseys. He thought they would be great conversation starters to wear at the gym when he got back to school.
As he was about to drift off to sleep, he was thinking about the old man sitting outside his nemesis’ shed drinking raspberry wine and watching the shed of his enemy burn. He thought to himself, “I am not going to tell that story again until I have given those old guys names,” and he drifted off to sleep wondering what names he might give them when he told the story. The next morning he woke with a start, and he knew that when he returned to Stanford he was going to change his major from Business to Literature.
*
At Stanford Quin continued to throw hard and do enough accademically to earn decent grades, but it did not translate into a career in pro baseball. It did translate into a masters in English Literature, a part-time job at a Jr. College, a short marriage, a long affair, a short stint as an alcoholic, a long rehab, a longer divorce, a small mountain of debt, a deep suspicion that his best years were behind him, a growing conviction that his life would never again be charmed, and a vague thought that somehow things might be better if he went home. He slipped back into Appendix that summer during the week of the carnival without making so much as a ripple. This was absolutely fine with him.
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