It became painfully obvious during this year’s Erie County Fair.
The old, red Radio Flyer had seen its best days.
Cracks were showing in the plastic seats.
The handle was loosening.
The wheels needed to be kicked straight because they became slightly bent under the weight of what’s now been years and years and years of trips to the park, family outings and fun.
My 10-year-old grandson, Mason, try as he did, can’t quite fit in it anymore.
He’s a little too tall now.
The youngest, 5-year-old Kendall, still makes it.
She might get another year if we’re lucky, but I’m afraid the old, red wagon won’t make it that long.
Pretty soon everybody will be old and big enough to walk on their own.
They also won’t like the idea of any adult pulling them around in a wagon.
As the papa, I’ll still have the memories — all those fairs and walks to the parks and Canal Fests and more where the sturdy wagon saved my back and the kids’ feet and, well, just got us from place to place in comfort and style.
At this year’s Erie County Fair, a nice couple gave my granddaughter a giant stuffed animal they won and didn’t want.
We’re still debating what it is exactly. A monkey? A sloth?
Whatever it is, it has been named “Luna” and it has become my granddaughter’s favorite sleeping companion.
I captured a great photo of her and Luna in the old wagon and it is one of those shots you get sometimes that just perfectly captures a place in time — a fleeting instant where the fair is fun, the kids are still young and midway rides and Icees are everything.
There’s a little girl smiling while basking in the glow of an overstuffed monkey-sloth.
All is right in the grandparents’ world.
I couldn’t help think, as hard as it has been sometimes, how much I will miss our wagon journeys when it finally comes time to put the old Radio Flyer to rest.
It has served us well, a testament to what feels more and more like a rare thing these days — a well-made, well-designed, fully functional product produced by an American company with a long and rich history of making sturdy wagons, scooters and other kid-sized pieces of mobility equipment.
It’s with certainty that I say by this time next year all of the kids will be able to ride the “big” rides.
Mason is already too big to ride the small ones.
Soon enough, they’ll be ditching papa to go to the fair with their teenage friends and other cool people.
I might even, soon enough, be able to enjoy the fair with adults.
The raggedy condition of our old wagon caught my eye this year like it hasn’t before.
It made me think about all the time that has already passed and how quickly their still-young lives will go.
Of course, there’s still a future ahead with mobility devices involved — the adult kind where my wife and I get pushed or pulled around, hopefully by our adult grandchildren who still love us and love spending time with us.
Who knows, if we live long enough, we might even be there to have their kids feed us ice cream while we take the tour of the fair instead of leading it.
I’ll miss the wagon days just the same.
You served us well, Radio Flyer, and you will be missed.