the pondering pomegranate: i heart the state fair

my earliest memory of going to any sort of a 'fair' is from elementary school, when we lived in Scotland. as far as i can recall, it was a street fair - i suppose in downtown St. Andrews - with small amusement rides (whatever could fit in the width of a road) and, probably (though i don't remember this) games of luck & bits-and-bobs of carnival food. the only thing that has stayed with me, however, was getting positively ill from riding a spinning, twirling, flinging, & a little more spinning (just for good measure) contraption. it was one of those where you and a couple of your closest friends (or, possibly, complete strangers) sit in a little compartment - which, itself, spins around in a circle &, occasionally, decides to go, all of a sudden, in a circle of the opposite direction - and THEN, not only are you circling in your own little 360-degree world, but, now, all of the little compartments are circling together in a larger 360-degree world AND, to compound the excitement ten-fold, each compartment, in some highly unpredictable (especially in your current state of peril) pattern, begins to shoot OUT from that larger 360-degree world like the tongue of a bullfrog catching a fly. and there is no way to escape. you are, until the ride ends, at the mercy of the bullfrog's tongue.

so, yeah, that's not a great memory.

however!

it has in no way prevented me from

LOVING

the State Fair.

Jim Graham building in lower left...all the way to Dorton Arena in upper right

midway

the site of the ever-popular demolition derby with Kerr Scott building in background

Village of Yesteryear & where all the flowers are, plus some fancy chickens and rabbits

amazing acrobatic feats in front of Dorton Arena

all that's well & good, but my favorite is to walk through the agricultural buildings. back in the day, you could even hold baby chicks & ducks (e.coli be darned), scooping them right out of their little lightbulb-warmed pens. they typically peed on you, which was probably because they were totally stressed out by all the humans & their grabby hands. so things are, i guess, a lot better for state fair animals these days.

not sure this cow thinks so.

mainly, we walked. and walked. and walked some more because the map didn't say where anything was - just had an occasional picture symbol, that was somewhat unreliable. so, this is the moment when we hung a right, (unknowingly) bypassing the award-winning gourds...which are akin to the holy grail of the state fair...& required an additional mile or two once we realized the midway was a dead-end, right there at the tent where you could see "an amazing sight: the head of a beautiful woman on the body of a 200-pound snake."

appropriately, i look like i'm on a safari

reconnaissance at the candy apples

obliging me with a photo in our least favorite area of the fair (although, one year, Samuel won the basketball game & came home with a ginormous jamaican banana)

speaking of games, aren't you (just like i am) so convinced that, if you stand there and watch the guy or gal perform the feat again & again & again, that YOU, TOO, will be able to ring the bottle & win the amazing prize (of a priceless synthetic, crunchy, neon stuffed animal). YES! we are convinced by the carny's deft skill that all which stands between us & that prize is a few dollars. especially! ESPECIALLY! if we have spent at least five minutes watching exactly how it's done. easy as pie.

we weren't total suckers.

they never got our money.

& we never won a prize.

but they had us at DEEP FRIED

so, here's the food review, by Samuel & Joseph:

fried oreos = thumbs down

fried reese's cup wrapped in bacon = big thumbs up

(this was before the news that eating bacon is like smoking a pack of cigarettes)

ever-classic funnel cake = always a winner

(see above video for a close-up tour of my silver-infused hair)

i look as if i'm doing something sneaky

the unimaginable is imaginable at the state fair

so, after our somewhat mistaken venture through the midway (trying to find a shortcut to the flowers, no joke), we had to circle all the way back (so sorry!) through the throngs to finally attain the serenity of the landscape design entries....

ah, how romantic....

apart from their fried delicacies, it became apparent that i was at the fair with teenagers. they did perk up for a round of mini-golf (as well as, bonus!, brush up on their poison control facts).

as a former dollhouse aficionado (who enjoyed using brussel sprouts as a head-o-lettuce, natch), i always like the fairy kingdom of bonsai trees ~ especially the beautiful crab apple! (although, if memory serves me, it seems to be repeatedly denied a ribbon...wonder why?)