Question: Please explain this line to me: in the hospital talking to the camera, she says, 'Mom still cries when she sees a tilt-o-whirl and a fat lady in a tube top.'
Answer: The girl's father was a carnie (carnival worker), and he left her mother to continue being one. Apparently tilt-o-whirls and fat ladies in tube tops bring back memories.
Chosen answer: I don't think anyone actually put gasoline over the float - it's suggested in the movie that the float is leaking gasoline because Becky's father imported it cheap from Mexico.
Shay