Another Year, Another Fair

It's was Fair season again this past week. I don't have a whole lot to say about it that I haven't said before (here and here, for instance.) The fair and the parade don't change a whole lot from year to year, but there are small differences. Some of it's good, some of it isn't.

One good thing about the parade this year is that Rachael was able to attend - probably for the first time in several years. She was in town briefly due to being called up for jury duty (for which she was excused. Take that, "Civic Duty!") This made for some good banter as we waited for the parade to begin, especially when some guy came down the crowded sidewalk wearing some homemade signs on his front and back which read, "Foot Power." He also wore a poorly made cardboard car, which was held up by suspenders, strapped on him, not unlike one of those barrels that broke people wear in the comic strips.

I don't know where this guy came from but if he was trying to convince anyone that "foot power" was the way to go, he wasn't making a very convincing case of it. His legs seemed to be doing an awful lot of waking but he wasn't getting very far. He spent most of his time in some kind of slow motion march, waving his jazz hands at people who, like me, mostly avoided eye contact. After about twenty minutes, he finally made the fifty feet or so down to the corner of the street where I thankfully lost sight of him. So, that was pretty good.

I guess another good thing about the parade was that I once again didn't see the oft mentioned creepy Clown for Jesus this year. For those of you not in the know, this clown (literally) was someone (Man? Woman?) who used to march along, handing out fliers and stickers for his/her church while also making crosses out of balloons. There's something about that which has always seemed weird to me.

And another good thing about the parade this year was that they managed to keep the bulk of the heavy trucks clustered together at the end of the parade. I don't have anything against heavy trucks - except when I'm stuck behind one going to or from work, but I don't need to see a string of them driving along float-less in a parade.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure that there was someone in the parade who was, for some reason, handing out raw potatoes. I can't imagine the bitter disappointment of being a little kid, watching the parade go by in hopes of catching a piece of candy - and instead ending up with a raw potato.

Other than that, I don't have much to say about the parade. I took a grand total of three pictures this year - a new record low for me. And of those three photos, two of them have nobody I know in them. The other one has only the backs of people I know. Still, I probably won't delete them, "just in case."

I also don't have much to say about the Fair itself. It was pretty much the standard routine for us, as well. I think maybe the only difference for us this year was that, due to Sam aging out, it was the first time in years that no one from the family had anything entered in the kids exhibition hall. But we went in and looked around anyway, for some reason of which I'm still not clear.

Like last year, we went to the pig races again. This, along with getting French fries, was the only thing that Sam had said he wanted to do at the Fair. So, after a little walking around, we headed over to the stands to watch the racing pig show. This show, like last year, not only featured some racing pigs, but it also featured a swimming pig named "Swifty." I'm not sure what the story is, but this year's Swifty was considerably younger than last year's.

Where the previous Swifty was reluctant to get in the water - choosing instead to poop on the platform, this year's Swifty wasn't given the choice and was basically dipped in the water by one of the ring leaders. I wanted to ask what happened to last year's Swifty, but I think it's probably one of those things that you're better off not knowing.

Other than that, it was the standard fare (fair?) of walking down the midway and avoiding the vendors, and walking through the exhibition buildings and avoiding the vendors. We had our usual tub-o-French fries and later, some distinctly under-cooked monster onion rings (small onion + massive mounts of batter.) Before heading out and getting the usual fried dough and cotton candy for the ride home (of which I abstained), we walked down past the rides, not going on any of them again, just like last year. Helaina pointed out that there was no Ferris wheel this year, and even though I wouldn't have gone on it anyway, that's one of those changes that feels like a loss. And to honest with you, I'm a little bitter about it.

On the way out, we stopped and watched as a frightened little kid go stuck half way through a gym-type "ride." On our first stroll past this ride, the kid was looking to get off through the entrance. But some time between our first pass and now, he had been convinced  to hold his sister's hand and give it a try. He hesitantly made it about half way through, up to an upper tier where he must have said whatever a three year old's equivalent is of , "Screw this" (which in this day and age is probably, "Screw this.")

Freezing up, refusing to hold his sister's hand and beginning to cry, all must have seemed like better options to him because that's what he did - and I don't blame him one bit. The woman who ran the ride ended up climbing up to carry him down which seemed to comfort him considerably. I didn't even know the kid, but I was proud of him for trying.

Finally ready to leave, we stopped to get our wristbands. The wristband lets you get back into the fair on the same day, without having to pay - should you decide to return. We seldom come back - having done so maybe only a couple of times over the years, but we usually get a wristband, anyway. This year was no different.

And like just about every other year, we didn't make it back. But that's ok. I'm pretty sure that next year, we'll be doing it all over again.