A Fair of the Heart

One of the things Dan uniformly heard from his new coworkers upon arrival here was that he *had* to go to the North Carolina State Fair at least once. I get the feeling the advice stems more from their conviction that the fair is a cultural experience than their hopes that the fair would be one of his best times.

Since then, time has flown. We've been here more than three months, and the once far-off fair started this week. So, we decided to brave the crowds on a Saturday since we don't anticipate having time to spare to see the fair on any other day during its 10-day run.

Nursing Cow


I'm hard-pressed to even put into words some of what we saw and experienced. Let's just say that the first sound that greeted our ears when we stepped out onto the street across from the fairgrounds pretty much summed up the theme of the day -- Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA". A good portion of the day was spent saying things like, "Can you even imagine seeing this at the L.A. County Fair?" "Look!" and "Did you see that?"

There were things I saw that I never thought I would see (for instance, a painting pig) and things I heard I never expected to hear (such as the tractor pull announcer saying, "You folks go have yourselves a good time tonight, and then tomorrow you get yourselves to the church of your choice. You won't never regret it, I promise."), but nothing could have prepared me for the fair in its fullness.

Tractor Pull!


We toured a "manufactured home," ate a hot and spicy pickle, pet a cow named Selena, watched kids with special needs present their bovines, listened to a crowd erupt in applause for our troops, watched a modified hot-rod with 3 jet engines pull a weight truck (and nearly lost our hearing in the process), used restrooms with Halloween decorations and tip bowls, examined hand-made goods of all sorts, tried to avoid the constant chatter of the carnival shysters, sampled flavored honey, glanced at people of all shapes and sizes, watched live musical performances, spent a buck or five again and again, got lost in the enormous midway, and chatted with people we would probably never have met otherwise, including a young black man with very serious physical limitations who proclaimed that he would one day fly a stealth bomber.

Fiddlin' Man


To be completely, well, fair, Dan and I had a good time. Dan said he could tell I was enjoying myself because I was giggling constantly. In fact, I haven't stopped giggling yet.

As easy as it is to look at the fair through somewhat condescending southern Californian eyes, one thing was abundantly clear: this fair was an affair of the heart for many, many people. In spite of myself, I couldn't help feeling the weight of the pride that those big blue ribbons carried and the palpable, contagious excitement from the throngs of people, some of whom had come from other states to exhibit, vend or visit.

Pig Auctioneer


Alhough I sometimes got the distinct impression that I was surrounded by people whose experience of life is almost completely different from mine, I think we all shared one trait in common: we'll not soon forget our experience at the fair.


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