Day 4 - Monday, July 10, 2012
First day of performing. Spent a lot of time making the turtle right, then it was into the frying pan. (Today was Daycare Day, so we had masses of kids.) I had to learn how to manipulate several puppets, maneuver the turtle and react to the kids.
Happily the kids were very forgiving of my newbie status and it was actually fairly easy to get into the swing of it - except for the maneuvering part. Getting a six foot puppet on wheels to go where you want to takes some doing. I got better as the day went on though. Didn't even run over anyone (yet).
The best part was Kay. Kay was a little blonde girl who, at first, was extremely shy but obviously attracted to Hoolia, the owl puppet. One of Hoolia's knock knock jokes ends with her asking for a hug. As soon as Kay got in her first hug she was hooked. From that point on she was never that far from the wagon, and particularly Hoolia. She and Hoolia became the bestest friends and Hoolia told her several times that she was the best hugger. There was a lot of interaction and Kay accompanied the wagon all over the fairgrounds. Slowly Animal and I began to realize that Kay was spending WAAY too much time with us with no adult in sight. Also, I had to take a break,which meant getting out of the turtle, something I did not want to do in front of an audience, particularly Kay. So she was sent back to her mother and I exited Shelly (the turtle) to get supplies.
But when I got back to the wagon there was Kay again. I had to wait until Animal found a way to get her to go off with a friend, then I scurried back into the turtle and we were off again. And here was Kay again, trying to teach Hoolia how to sing the alphabet and how to count. (Owls can't count because they don't have fingers, and also Hoolia is only TWOOOO.)
Eventually Kay was sent off by the fairy and we made it into the building they set aside for us when we are not traveling or performing. We spent the hour or so doing some repairs and then were getting ready to go look around the fair, when suddenly a knock on the door and the General Manager was there looking for her. We immediately joined in the search. Happily she was quickly found by state trooper and returned to her relatives. YAY!
Apparently Kay is here for the duration, so I expect there will be more tales to tell, although I also think her family is going to keep her on a short leash for the rest of the fair. Hope so. She was too cute and too trusting for her own good.
More to come, no doubt.
Oh, and by the way - They do speak like that here. No, really.
But the "you betcha" count is only at 1 so far, though we got 3 "you bets" out of one person in the space of 20 seconds.
I wait with bated breath for more.
It's been a long day and I'm beat.
Talk atcha later.
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