``A merry-go-round horse is a thing of some size, some height,
and some movement; and while the track is never wet, it can be
very noisy.  American middle-class two-year-olds often find the
prospect too much for them.  They fight their parents at the last
moment to avoid being strapped into a context in which it had been
hoped they would prove to be little men.  Sometimes they become
frantic halfway through the ride, and the machine must be stopped
so that they can be removed.

``Here we have one of the classic possibilities of life.  Participation
in any circuit of face-to-face activity requires the participant to keep
command of himself, both as a person capable of executing physical
movements and as once capable of receiving and transmitting
communications.  A flustered failure to maintain either kind of role
poise makes the system as a whole suffer...

``At three or four, the task of riding a wooden horse is still a
challenge, but apparently a manageable one, inflating the rider to
his full extent with demonstrations of capacity.  Parents need no
longer ride alongside to protect their youngsters.  The rider throws
himself into the role in a serious way, playing it with verve and an
admitted engagement of all his faculties.  Passing his parents at
each turn, the rider carefully lets go one of his hands and grimly
waves a smile or a kiss...

``Returning to the merry-go-round, we see that at five years of age
the situation is transformed, especially for boys.  To be a merry-
go-round horse rider is apparently not enough, and this fact must be
demonstrated out of dutiful regard for one's own character.  Parents
are not likely to be allowed to ride along, and the strap for preventing
falls is often disdained.  One rider may keep time to the music by
clapping his feet or a hand against the horse, an early sign of utter
control.  Another may make a wary stab at standing on the saddle or
changing horses without touching the platform.  Still another may
hold on to the post with one hand and lean back as far as possible
while looking up to the sky in a challenge to dizziness.  Irreverence
begins, and the horse may be held on to by his wooden ear or his tail.
The child says by his actions: `Whatever I am, I'm not just someone
who can barely manage to stay on a wooden horse.'  Note that what
the rider is apologizing for is not some minor ontoward event that has
cropped up during the interaction, but the whole role...

``At seven or eight, the child not only dissociates himself self-
consciously from the kind of horseman a merry-go-round allows him
to be but also finds that many of the devices that younger people use
for this are now beneath him.  He rides no-hands, gleefully chooses
a tiger or a frog for a steed, clasps hands with a mounted friend
across the aisle.  He tests limits, and his antics may bring a negative
sanction from the adult in charge of the machine.  And he is still
young enough to show distance by handling the task with bored,
nonchelant competence, a candy bar languidly held in one hand.

``At eleven and twelve, maleness for boys has become a real
responsibility, and no easy means of role distance seems to be
available on merry-go-rounds.  It is necessary to stay away or
to exert creative acts of distancy, as when a boy jokingly treats
his wooden horse as if it were a racing one: he jogs himself up
and down, leans far over the neck of the horse, drives his
heels mercilessly into its flanks, and uses the reins to get more
speed, brutally reining in the horse when the ride is over.  He
is just old enough to achieve role distance by defining the whole
undertaking as a lark, a situation for mockery.

``Adults who choose to ride a merry-go-round display adult
techniques of role distance.  One adult rider makes a joke of
tightening the belt around him; another crosses his arms, giving
popcorn with his left hand to the person on his right and a coke
with his right hand to the person on his left.  A young lady
riding sidesaddle tinkles out, `It's cold,' and calls to her
watching boy friend's boy friend, `Come on, don't be chicken.'  A
dating couple riding adjacent horses holds hands to bring sentiment,
not daring, to the situation.  Two double-dating couples employ
their own techniques: the male in front sits backwards and takes
a picture of the other male rider taking a picture of him.  And,
of course, some adults, riding close by their threatened two-and-a-half-
year-old, wear a face that carefully demonstrates that they do not
perceive the ride as an event in itself, their only present interest
being their child.

``And finally there is the adult who runs the machine and takes the
tickets.  Here, often, can be found a fine flowering of role distance.
Not only does he show that the ride itself is not - as a ride - an
event to him, but he gets on and off and around the moving platform
with a grace and ease that can only be displayed by safely taking
what for children and even adults would be chances.''

- Erving Goffman, _Encounters_ p.105