Freaky, Freaky

I've always loved freaks. When I was a kid my mother would always say, "Don't stare. Don't stare." But I couldn't help it. I wasn't crazy about midgets because they came to the N.C. State Fair every year. They had a sideshow tent and they dressed in evening gowns and tuxedos. I had to give up five rides in order to buy a ticket, but I always went to the midget show. At halftime they would come out into the audience and sell stuff...you could buy autographed photographs signed with a midget hand. One year they sold midget Bibles which didn't even have one chapter. And then the next year they sold straight pins with the Lord's Prayer engraved on the head of them. So they said. I bought one. I was one of those "a sucker is born every minute" kids. I was so eager to get home and tell my Dad about my treasure. He held the pin under the light and turned it slowly. He squinted. Finally he said, "There's nothing on the head of this pin, son. You've been screwed by a band of midgets." I was sure he was wrong. I took the pin back and turned it slowly and read, "Our Father who art in Heaven....". "You're just making that up, son," my Dad said. "If I were you I would go back over to the fair and kick some tiny butt." I said, "Would you go with me?" He said, "They're midgets. You're as big as they are. You can take them." They were little alright, but one of them smoked a cigar so I figured they were probably fairly strong. I just put the pin away and swore I would never go to a midget show again. But I never lost my fascination for midgets or other freaks. My daughter just bought me a book titled FREAK BABYLON...it's filled with real pictures of real freaks. Many of them are in the movie, FREAK. The movie that was made in the 30's and was considered so scandalous that MGM pulled it. The book talks about the movie, but also about freaks and the people who loved them. I knew that Diane Arbus, the photogapher, became enamored with them toward the end of her life. She would go to 42nd Street and take pictures of them. In the book it said that Catherine the Great loved giants...she had them brought to Russia so she could have sex with them. But being unsatisfied with giants, she took to having sex with horses. The book claims she died having sex with a horse. A friend told me it was the horse that died.