Concrete Fairground

Dazed, dizzy and eating zeppoles.

Illustration by Jose-Luis Olivares

We knew it was coming when they relocated recess to the indoor gymnasium.

From our perch on the fourth floor, we watched the trucks pull into the parking lot beside the Catholic church to the dismay of our teacher, tapping her foot by the blackboard as she tried to divert our attention back to a lesson on cursive handwriting. But nothing could draw our attention away from the men as they proceeded to build a fair from the ground up before our awestruck eyes.

Every afternoon over the course of a week, we would resume our spots at the window, left slightly ajar to let in the warm breeze that promised a spring respite from our bitter East Coast winter. The men worked from dawn till dusk, starting with the installation of a Ferris wheel at the far end of the lot and ending with a dragon-shaped rollercoaster that reached us at eye level. In the daylight, this haphazard collection of rides appeared to us as the playground we had never known. Recess for the st…