Summary: Virgil's first ride on a hurdy-gurdy.
Notes: This story is based on something that actually happened. Wee Tracy's.
The Hurdy-Gurdy.
2039
The Hurdy-Gurdy was a fair ground staple, and the first ride for many a child in the local county.
It was a simple setup, looking like a love child between a windmill and a clothesline* with sixteen muti-coloured horses strung between the poles.
This would be the first year Virgil and John, with Jeff because the nearly two-year-old boy was still too little, would be riding the ride. Five-year-old Scott, had already been introduced to the ride a couple of years earlier.
Jeff looked across at his three-year-old son, who was sitting on the horse beside him, who was crying for some reason, "What's wrong, Virgil?" he asked. "Don't you want to go on the ride?"
"I do," Virgil sobbed.
"Then what's wrong?" Jeff asked.
"I wanna push the button!" Virgil cried.
Scott who was riding the horse in front of Jeff turned around, "You can't do both at the same time, Virge," he called back.
"But I wanna!"
"Virgil," Jeff put a hand on the boy's shoulder, as he looked at one of the ride's operators. "How about we go on this ride for now, and once we are finished, if it's okay with the operator, we can have you push the button to start the next one."
"Sounds like a deal to me, kiddo," the ride operator agreed, as he looked over at the operator at the controls. "What do you think, Frank?"
Frank the operator at the controls gave a thumbs up.
"Well, Virgil?" Jeff asked.
"Okay…" Virgil sniffled.
With that the operator took a step back and started the ride, which Virgil enjoyed, and John fell asleep on his father's lap.
After the ride had finished Jeff let Scott have another go on the ride, and returned John to an amused Lucy, while he joined Virgil at the controls of the ride, and watched his excited son talk to the controller.
This turned out to be the beginning of a recurring thing, every year until Virgil turned ten-years-old, Virgil would first ride the ride then let his brothers ride the ride again, while he talked to the people who controlled the ride.
And pushed the button, he always had to have a go at pushing the button.
*By clothesline, I'm talking about an old hill's hoist here.