There’s nothing like a county fair for sights, sounds, and smells. When you mix them all together, they make for a magical, enjoyable time for children of all ages. Whether you’re five or one hundred and five, the county fair is a special place for everyone.
This week is the Vernon County Fair. It’s always the last fair of the season in Wisconsin. When I was young, we always attended the fair. We were members of the Seas Branch Smithies 4-H Club, and when I was in high school I was in the FFA. Every year I showed dairy cattle and hogs. The fair was the culmination of all the work we put into our projects. It was a fun and exciting time.
After I left the farm, I was seldom around during the fair. When our kids were young, we took them to the Vernon County Fair a couple of times. Somehow, the fair, and especially the midway, seemed a lot smaller than it was when I was young. But there was still a magical quality about it.
Now I’m back to spending every day at the fair again. I don’t show cattle any more, but I’m at our company’s booth in the co-op building ten hours a day. I don’t spend all the time at our booth talking business. I still take time to enjoy the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes, especially the tastes. By the time the midway is shut down for another year and the last cow is on a truck headed home, I’ll probably have eaten at every food stand more than once. I’ll have sampled Hub’s Fries, fried cheese curds, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, Bar-B-Qs, baked potatoes with chili or pork, and several kinds of pie–some with ice cream. Uff da, it’s a tough job eating fair food for five days! I should probably have my cholesterol levels checked after fair week is over.
One thing that’s as scarce as hen’s teeth at the fair is decaf coffee. If any food stand is serving decaf, let me know. A friend tells me, “If you’re not going to drink real coffee, why bother drinking it at all.” He has a point. There’s no caffeine kick in decaf! But that’s another story.
I also like to walk through the barns and watch some of the cattle judging. It brings back memories of when I showed cattle. I like to watch how the kids show off their animals. A good showman can make an average animal look better than a fine animal in the hands of a poor showman. An award I’m proud of is the top showmanship award I received one year at the fair.
After showing our cattle, we were able to take more time to explore the other aspects of the fair. I wasn’t much for the rides. The tilt-a-whirl was enough excitement for this old midway warrior. It was best enjoyed when in the company of a girl you wanted to get to know better. Sharing the ride with a bunch of your guy friends just wasn’t the same. The fair was the one time of year when you could get up the nerve to ask a girl to accompany you on a ride, without feeling like you were going to throw up. That part came after going in too many circles on a ride, or upside down. That wasn’t the way to impress a girl! In our defense, I should note that the rides usually followed eating too much fair food. Large amounts of fair food and wild, midway rides just don’t mix.
At least now I don’t have to worry about going on the rides. I can just concentrate on eating my way from one side of the fair to the other.
While I’m doing that, it’s also fun to stroll down the lane in front of all the carny barkers and hear them trying to entice people to play their game and win a prize. I mentioned earlier that this is the last fair of the year, and many of the carny people look like they can hardly wait to pack up and head south for the winter. I imagine it’s been a long, hard season for them. It doesn’t help that it’s often cold or wet during a Mid-September fair.
I often wonder how these people got involved in following the midway from one fair or festival to the next. Maybe it’s the writer in me, but I want to know their story. I’ve seen some of these same people at the fair for many years. Maybe this is the year when I’ll strike up a conversation with some of them and find out their story. Everyone has one. I think I’d find some interesting and fascinating life stories around the midway. I’ll probably have to play a few games first, in order to start a conversation. If you see me walking around with a teddy bear under my arm, you’ll know what I’ve been up to.
I love observing people at the fair. I think we older generations are in search of the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes that live in our memories from earlier fairs. This year we’ll add some new ones. County fairs are one of the remaining staples of rural America. It’s a melting pot of the past, present, and future. Experience it and enjoy it!
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