The Mid-South Fair

I'm not someone who is crazy about the fair, but Warren is and after being married to him for seven and a half years and having to work at the fair for two, I've come to enjoy it.

We took the monkeys a couple of years ago, but managed to avoid it last year. Since I was working this year and had scoped everything out, Warren and I decided to take the monkeys on the very last day. Attendance had been pretty mild for the most part, so I was a little surprised by the massive turnout on Sunday.

Our first stop was the trash can art auction. There were some really amazing trash cans painted by area high school students. I had narrowed my favorites down to three (the environmentally minded gnomes, the Memphis soup can, and the Waldo style where's Elvis) and was trying to come up with a good reason why we needed to own one. (I never did, unfortunately.)

Next, I had to let Warren try a deep fried Snickers. He agreed that it was yummy, but I could tell he was getting a little nervous about the sugar content about half way through. Satchel had a few bites, but Jiro (completely out of character) turned his nose up at it. He only wanted lemonade.

Off we went to a bus full of reptiles. Over 50 varieties for only $1!

Then we went to the petting zoo where Satchel was in heaven. He made sure to touch each and every animal at least once. We ran into several kids from school there. Raime, a six-year-old girl who was the impetus for Satchel trying the water slide at the JCC, asked us if we were going on the Caterpillar roller coaster. I didn't expect the boys to want to ride anything, but after Raime's comment, it was ON.

The monkeys started off a little apprehensive--holding hands as they approached the Caterpillar and demanding that I go with them--but quickly acclimated (note Jiro standing up in the airplane ride below!). If there's a fair next year I think we'll definitely be wristband ready, provided the authorities let Jiro in.

I had to leave the boys at the rides and go man the booth for work. They rounded out their fair experience with a trip to the Horticulture building, a dinner of chicken on a stick, and a very silly dog show. They stopped by my booth to say goodbye and each monkey was clutching a small, orange New Testament, compliments of the men in the booth next to us.

"Can I draw in it?" Jiro asked.

As they were leaving Warren said, "I'm sleepy."

"It's the candy bar," I said.

Later in the evening, I took a break from the booth and had my final ice cream cone, heard a bit of Ashford and Simpson, and got lost in the crowd while checking out the games. I actually had to ask a police officer (standing in a tower and holding a sniper gun!) where the Exhibition Hall was even though I had been at the fair for nearly ten days straight! I think I had my first real "crunk" experience. Although it was much more crowded than drunk. It seemed like there were maybe a few guys from Mississippi actually drinking. Everyone else was just enjoying eating and blowing large sums of money.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Tonight while looking at old pictures with the monkeys, I found one from our last visit to the fair in 2005. Satchel was absolutely mortified by his outfit (that he picked out).