Published July 31, 2005 in the Hibbing Daily Tribune
By Aaron J. Brown
Come sugar-high children, donning unlimited ride bracelets. Come seamless siding salesmen, your eager customers draw near wearing handsome tops – both tank and tube.
Come carnies, come corn dogs. Come politicians and police. Come one, come all. It’s time for the county fair.
Summer’s sweaty crescendo – the St. Louis County Fair – kicks off this week, and Itasca County’s fair starts in two short weeks. These annual celebrations of livestock, art and eating stick foods (incidentally, my three best subjects at Cherry High School) also signal the waning days of the season. When it’s all done, we can only wait for autumn’s inevitable wind and leaves.
Some say county fairs are throwbacks to a different era, a time of subsistence farming and community pride. A critic might scoff at the fair, as he or she logs onto the Internet to throw their money at the “virtual barkers” of online gaming, auction sites and Nbuto Mlaakawa, whose Kenyan inheritance is theirs to share. I say even as the world advances past the Technology Age, we have room in our hearts, and bellies, for what the fair offers.
For some, the fair is a time to drink beer with friends in giant cage. For others, the fair is a time to stare at people drinking in a giant cage, judging them. People pay good money for greasy food, and then more money for fast rides that spin the food right out of them. Politics abound as balloons, stickers and handouts declare allegiance to Democrats, Republicans and various places that sell bottled water.
For many, the county fair is the only time of year you see certain people in your life. Obscure cousins. The kid who sat behind you in high school math class. That guy at work whose name you’ve never really known (Rob?). They’re all at the fair, and they’d like to tell you about their children, who are very skilled at something in some sort of way. Either that, or they’d like to reminisce. Do you remember when you did that really funny thing with those other people? Yes, those were the days.
This will be a big year at the fair(s) for me, because we have a child now. We get to take Henry on his first trip through the commercial exhibit building. We’ll tie a balloon onto his stroller while the little guy endures a thousand cheek pinches from strange people who thinks it’s amazing how much he looks like me or my wife, his biological parents.
I’ll have to wait a few years before Henry’s trip to the fair gets really fun. In a couple years he’ll expect me to win some large, awkward stuffed animal by throwing wadded up $20 bills into a shot glass through the blades of a box fan set to “HIGH.” Around the same time, he’ll probably want to sample one of every kind of sugary food available for sale. I’ll probably be talked into both. Heck, I’d probably do those things on my own anyway.
Then come the rides. As I said, Henry’s only ride this year will be in his safe, albeit milk-tinted stroller. But I swear the kid grows bigger overnight, and before long he’ll be asking to ride the kiddie roller coaster. I’m just glad I’ll get a few more years after that before he wants to go on the “Spine Cracker 5000 (2 D XTREME).”
When it comes to the county fair, there’s always plenty in store.
Aaron J. Brown is a columnist for the Hibbing Daily Tribune.