College Ave. Carnival

This is another favorite story of mine about the Matt and Katie of yester-year. It's a little difficult to explain in writing, especially without losing some if it's magic. So, here's to trying to do it justice...

In March of 2005, Matt and I, along with our roommates and a couple close friends were very bored on a Saturday night. Somehow, amidst the boredom...we developed an intricate plan. This plan involved a 10pm trip to walmart to purchase facepaints, generic soda, and neon posterboard.
And so...the "College Avenue Carnival" was born!

We decided to have some lighthearted fun with the Athens downtown scene, as they were drinking the night away. So we set up camp on the corner of College Avenue and Broad, right in front of where Five Guys is now stationed from 11pm to about 2:30am. People of all shapes & sizes, ages, genders and sobrieties stopped to inquire about our free activities and why we would spend our Saturday night and money on such a thing. Our response was "For the Hell of it!"
The carnival featured the following:

• Creepy Carnival music (just like being at the circus).
  
• Phrases like "Step right up, folks, step right up!" and "If we can't guess your weight, YOU win a prize!"
  
• A face painting booth: Where Rachel and I painted animals by request for FREE on any willing participant's cheek. Some of our art work included polar bears, mice, dogs, cats, rabbits, and one skunk.
  

• A "Guess your Weight" Game: Where the fellows took turns guessing their contenders' weight, and if they couldn't get within a 5 pound radius on the bathroom scale, the guess-ie won a Snickers bar.

• And a Can Toss: Where players could also win prizes by knocking down our tower of empty generic soda cans with an old hackey-sack. We all drank more crap-cola than should be allowed at any carnival.
  

All in all, it was a night to remember. It was shocking to see how many 20-somethings hit up the carnival in between hops, or how many would run and pull their other friends out of bars just to have a go at the can toss or get their face painted. If given the chance, I'd do it again but only with my former fellow carnies.