County Fair

We went to my hometown county fair last evening. This is the first time I’ve been to the county fair in over 20 years. (We’ve been to the state fair a few times over the past several years.) I remember the county fair of my younger days—going with family, going with friends, going with a date. The lights, the sounds, the smells, the shoddily-assembled rides, etc. were all there last night.

We went a bit before sundown and stayed a bit after sundown. My boys loved it. I had fun, and I think my wife and mom had fun, too, but it really wore us out. We had pizza slices and cheeseburgers for dinner, and I got a funnel cake for dessert. The first half of a funnel cake is great, but the second half gets to be a bit much. So I only ate about 9/10ths of it.

I slid down the Fun Slide with my 2 year old (the 6 year old didn’t like climbing the open and rickety stairs up so high). That slide was taller, faster, and more of a ride than I expected—was pretty cool.

The 6 year old drove a bumper car by himself for the first time. The 2 year old wanted to ride the bumper cars, too, and I was going to ride with him, but it was only one person per car, and the little guy was under the height limit. He cried in disappointment.

I took the boys into two fun houses. The first one was a maze of glass and mirrors. It’s actually pretty hard to find your way through that kind of thing. You have to choose direction by feeling the walls, because the disorienting effect of the mirrors and the invisibility of the glass defeats visual attempts to find the path. I’d love to go through a really big maze like that. The whole effect is really cool, and the boys laughed and shouted the whole way through.

The second fun house was a disappointment. The floor was supposed to be moving in places, but it was broken, apparently. At one point, there were rollers on the floor to make walking difficult, but the rollers were stuck, so they didn’t do anything. But the boys still laughed and shouted the whole way through.

I also took the boys into the petting zoo to feed the sheep, goats, donkey, and lama. The boys dropped most of the feed pellets on the ground when the animals tried to eat out of their hands, and then they’d run back to the vending box for more food.

The wife and I rode the Ferris wheel together. I was interested in seeing the fair from up high, and my wife was interested in waving to the boys down on the ground. We didn’t even think of making out while up there alone. The Ferris wheel used to be an excuse for alone time and kissing.

I also rode the sky drop thingy, alone. It has a circular seating arrangement, facing out, around a tower 120′ high. The circle seat rises slowly up the tower, with the riders’ feet hanging out over open air, and then it freefalls about 100′. That was more intense than I thought it would be. For one thing, there is no warning when you’re about to fall. I expected there to be brief stop or bump or click or something at the top just before the drop, but nope, you just suddenly plummet. Falling is a very unnatural feeling, and I had the natural panic emotion for split second. But the experience was very cool. I’d have loved to do it another time or two, but we didn’t have time for it (nor enough tickets).

This year’s fair was about half the size of the years when I was a kid. The rides and attractions were arranged on only half the fairground area; the other half was empty and open. Among the missing attractions were the freak show tents. (I’d never gone in one, myself, but some of my friends did, and they explained that they just had pictures of freaks, or statues “representing” the freaks.) Also missing were half the rides and some of the big eats places. There was still enough to thoroughly entertain the boys for two and a half hours, but it was a noticeably smaller fair to me.

Still, it was a fun experience for my boys. It completely exhausted all of us, especially us parents and grandparent. The smaller size was a good thing for us, I think, because it made it easier to get around. I’m wondering if the state fair would be too much this year, what with both boys walking.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com