Come enjoy the atmosphere of the county fair (07/25/05)

Soon it will be time to hike up to the fairgrounds for the county fair. As hot as it has been lately our first stop will have to be the lemonade stand. I don’t know why lemonade at the fair tastes so much better than what I can make at home but it does. It could be the fact that it is so expensive. It could be that it is made by handsome young men intent on scoring points with the lithe young women. Or maybe it is the subtle animal perfume that permeates everything, including the lemonade. Or it could be that it is a long walk from our house and that the lemonade is cold and wet.

I look forward to the county fair. I like the animals, the smells and the relaxed atmosphere of a community coming together to enjoy itself and celebrate its achievements. We enjoy walking through the exhibits and seeing what people do as hobbies. The crocheted items and other needlework remind us of things our mothers made. The produce displays make us envious and tell us that our garden is due for a healthy dose of pesticide and fertilizer. The pies make us hungry.

I like wandering through the livestock displays. Sheep are some of my favorites. They are usually much nicer than the sheep we had. Wooly, our ram, was fond of butting people. It was our own fault. We thought it was funny to rub his head when he was little. It was cute to be chased by a tiny lamb but not so cute when the ram grew up and had headaches from his horns growing funny.

Once we have had our fill of the exhibits, animals and fair food we will head over to the grandstand for the entertainment. We have tickets for the annual oldies show but have decided to pass on the main event. Neither of us have ever heard of the featured performers who look too young to be allowed out by themselves. This is a good thing as most of the acts in previous years have been country singers. Unlike most people around here, I am not a fan of country music. My husband is, so I go to please him.

By skipping the performance I can avoid nasally voices singing about beer, trucks and that girl who done him wrong or the guy who ran around with everyone except the woman singing the song. I have no idea what performers so young will sing about. They are probably very good, but I’ll skip them anyway.

The best part of the fair used to be the rides and the midway. We could ride the Tilt-A-Whirl and the Scrambler for hours at a time before beaning some poor goldfish with a ping pong ball. We haven’t been on a ride in years and years and we leave the goldfish alone. We are content to walk around and watch while teenage boys win stuffed animals for their girlfriends.

One year our niece, Margaret, won five goldfish. Her mother made her give the first one away, so she won another one. She had to give that one away also. She won four more. She never did get to keep any of them. We didn’t understand why her mom didn’t let her take them home. County fair goldfish don’t tend to live very long in a house. I think that is because they are traumatized from all those ping pong balls bouncing off their fishbowls.

Our fish at home, George, is very glad he doesn’t get to go to the fair with us. He isn’t very sociable and wouldn’t like all those other fish around him even if they do have their own bowls. He tends to flare his gills in a vain attempt to look threatening if anybody gets too close to him.

As much as I enjoy the fair I have never entered anything. I am content to see what others do and just enjoy the atmosphere, the lemonade and the entertainment. Besides its the only chance I get all year to pet a sheep.[[In-content Ad]]