Last evening, Mr. Mod and I rollerbladed down the Monon Trail right into the open back gates of The Midway of The Indiana State Fair. The fair opens tomorrow so all sorts of carnival nomads were busy setting up rides and all those jippy games that you know are rigged, but tempt you into shoveling your money into their greedy little paws.
Other than slowing down to step over log-like electrical cords, hubby and I rolled all around the midway, down the main drag of deep fried food trailers, and up and down the sidewalks filled with photo booths, junky jewelry, leather goods and more. It may not sound like much fun to you, but when the nostalgic feelings of childhood happiness mix with exercise and endorphins, as well as being able to share it with my nearest and dearest, man oh man, what more could I want?
Let me explain this strange attraction to the fair.
(Me and new carny friends, Kenny, AJ and Gary)
I love the Indiana State Fair. I don’t necessarily love the fair itself, anymore, I just love going to the fairgrounds.
My grandmother, our Nana, was the bookkeeper for The State Fair when I was growing up. The greatest little perk a kid could imagine was going to see her in the big red brick Administration Building where she would slowly open this one very special file cabinet drawer. It contained tickets to pure State Fair Heaven!! Shows, concerts, rides, rodeos, you name it. It was the best thing I could imagine. I was the luckiest kid on Earth. Did I mention how much I wanted to travel on the rodeo circuit? My mom quickly set me straight on where that road would take me. Dang! Another dream shot down.
PhotoImage: GirlinProgress.com
What made me green with envy was that my older brothers got to finish up the summer working (and bunking) over at the fairgrounds. They were employed as ushers for all the special shows and events going on during the fair.
By the time I was old enough to work, Nana had long since moved to Pompano Beach, Florida to spend her retirement years in a hot little apartment like Mr. and Mrs. Seinfeld had at Del Boca Vista.
To me, State Fair time was better than Christmas. After all, it was summer! Looking back, I think I really thought our family was part owners of the Indiana State Fair. Heck, I would have moved in for the duration.
And if I couldn’t “rodeo”, then I wanted to become a 4H family where we all painstakingly raised some darling farm animals. In August, we could all load up the truck and trailers and camp out in the communal cow (or, preferably horse) barn, play cards all day in front of giant fans and smelly animals. I would have pampered my 4H animals like nobody’s business. Yeah, I would have jumped in and played around in the straw with my precious heifer.
PhotoImage: TalkofTheTown.com
To this day, I have a warm feeling whenever I even get within viewing distance of the fairgrounds. All I can figure is that during that long stretch of childhood summers, all was well with my family, and my world. The fair just happens to be a little piece of memorabilia that reminds me of those carefree, innocent years before life got complicated.
Tags: 4H, childhood, entertainment, fun, Indiana State Fair, rodeo, state fair, summer
