The Annual Fairs

It was a time of excitement getting up in the morning and knowing that you would be driving out to one of the annual county fairs. Who wouldn’t enjoy going out and smelling the air filled with scents of fresh beaver-tails (a flat style sort of fluffy pastry), the animal barns where farmers and their families proudly show the years stock of cattle, horses, goats, sheep and other various types of animals. I had been watching the Lucas Oil Tractor and Truck pulling on TV. It’s not the same. One of the highlights that I could remember since I was a child (aside from the midway rides and yelping carnies) is the truck pulls. Something about the smell of burning fuel, the sound of the powerful engines, the sight of the billowing “coal-like” exhaust. As I got older, I started going with friends. Without the parents. It was still fun. It gave me a sense of freedom from the fact that I didn’t have any set time to meet with my parents at a set time in the parking lot to go home. Sometimes, I never made it home until a day or two later. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine!”, I’d tell my mother over the phone. I remember a couple of times when I wished I had gone home though. I didn’t know that I was going to be seeing the royal rumble playing out in front of me as the night-time fair goers were those that would be drinking and wanting to fight. Luckily for me, most of my friends weren’t the type to do that. One year, we had been hanging around the fair grounds for a good part of the day. It was around noon-time and hot out and eventually the heat had gotten to me. So, I went searching for some of the friends I had been with earlier on. Once I had found them, in an area just off of the parking lot, they said I had to try something. Cannabis oil…. Well, and I can’t stress how much of a bad idea that was with the heat and all, …that pretty much called it a day for me. I had somehow wandered back into the midway. Luckily, a friend found me and decided we would sit and rest until I felt like I could perform normal functions…. Like holding my head up…. Another time, we had planned to stay the weekend. Another friend lived in a house not far from where the fairgrounds are. The plan was to setup a tent in their back yard. Go about our day having fun and enjoying the fair. I never got around to setting any tent up, and instead spent one of the nights sleeping in a friend’s car. The second night there, was spent in a car again. Although I don’t recall who’s car. The third night, was in a large army styled pole tent. Waking up the next morning to an unhappy parking attendant saying they’d already started parking cars for that day’s visitors, fun times! For myself, the fair marks a time when summer ends and the winter months start. These recent years, I have realized that I enjoy the quieter parts, walking through the barns, looking at the different chickens and hens in the fowl barn. Or just listening to the chatter of the people that I have come to recognize as regulars over the years. In recent years, I’ve come to enjoy seeing our kids enjoying themselves, climbing on the tractors, riding the rides and playing the games in the midway. It will mark the second year that these fairs won’t be opening. The pandemic has halted anything of the sort. But, when we are able to get back out to the local fairs, I can assure you that it will be a great time. We will be smelling the familiar smells, seeing the familiar faces, and enjoying what we have in life.