I struggled with how much to share, since my web site is a Christian based one. Many time one can get into telling a story of their past and be tempted by past memories.
I have many things I could share, and some I may at some time since I am considering a book on that Summer.
I could have added the fire started by locals in Butte MT after some ride Jockeys messed with the wrong local girls, or the time in Saskatchewan when I was seeing this girl who worked for a local vendor who has a food tent. He told me that he would rather I get with his daughter since he had to protect the girl I liked not being his daughter He literally suggested I get laid by his daughter instead.
Or the time we had a week in Okl;ahom,a City before the state fair started and so my brother took e with his friend ans we spent a few days in a Motel room checking out the city. They turned me onto acid and I fell a sleep.
To this day he shakes his head at me as if I am weird. Who falls asleep on acid. Well, I am hyper and thus speed reacts negatively on me and the acid had speed in it. Something learned much later,.
At night we slept in the game areas by pulling down the tarps and just slept on the table game tables. One night I barely got this gal out before her father found us. That was in Birmingham.
Or the first image in my head of thou=sands of black people at night. I am from Duluth MN, maybe 5 blacks in the whole city back then, but that night in Birmingham all I saw was eyeballs and teeth.
Some may have been insulted with some of these descriptions which are true. I have many more I would put in a book.
If you want to expand it into novel-length, you must first decide: WHAT MESSAGE DO I WANT TO CONVEY?
Will it be the story of your religious awakening? Did some incident that summer later influence / contribute to your becoming religious? Or do the stories at least serve as a warning to live a clean and upstanding life?
Would those stories be of interest to anyone outside your religious faith?
As I already indicated, I (like, I think, a great many of your potential readers) would like to learn more about the "Carnie life" (that's why we'd be reading a book about travelling with the carnival, right?).
If the book contained a lot of interesting characters unlike "regular folk," that would motivate people to buy it. If, in contrast, the characters were just like "regular folk" (sometimes venal, unreliable, irresponsible, etc.) and had no other unique (Carnie-specific) features, the book would be boring.
My advice: Include lots of Carnie lingo (explain the interesting history of certain words), include colorful characters (the Tattooed Lady, the Geek, etc.), and go into greater detail (the linked story would be considered the right length for an 8th-grade composition, but for the work of an adult, it looks more like a "treatment" or a "summary").
Regards,
I lived in Duluth for 1980 to 1998