Fair season is winding down up here in the great hot north. I hit up my third fair of the year last weekend, this time without the kids, to sing under the watchful eye of the world’s biggest Holstein cow. On the other side of the building 4-H kids stood, shoulders back, showing off the sheep or goat or steer they’d been working to feed up, groom and halter train all summer, unaware of just how many life lessons were packed into that project.
We took the long, impromptu trek to the state fair a few weekends back with, meeting up with a bunch of family. I bought my two-year-old a wrist band and she fearlessly jumped on every ride she was tall enough to sit in.
I mean, she didn’t even bat an eye at the thought of reaching the top of the Ferris Wheel. She just grabbed her cousin’s hand and off she went growing up and I stood below, watching and wondering if I should start worrying now about her sense of adventure.
Like, should I be hiding my husband’s dirt bike already?
I suppose she comes by it honestly when it comes to carnival rides. When I was a kid, the bigger and faster, the better. And so when I had to accompany her on a ride that spun and jerked around a bit, I happily obliged, even though the seats were ripped and like five out of the ten carts were out of order. We squealed and laughed and then squealed and laughed some more as it jerked us around and spun us in circles…for like six hours. Seriously, the ride lasted forever. It gave us our first opportunity at a mother/daughter ESP moment as we looked at each other, wincing, both trying to will it to stop while I seriously questioned my parenting choice of hotdog before spinny ride.
But we lived and we headed to the livestock barns to check out the pigs, goats, and cattle and grab an ice cream.
Oh I love a good fair. The county fair was my favorite weekend of the summer growing up, because I was and always will be, a project person. And so I did projects. And showed horses and looked forward to one of the few times in the summer that I got to stay long hours in town and hang out with my friends.
And so I was eager to take my two-year-old to her first county fair this year…and, well, here’s how it went.
In the name of the fair
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It was 175 degrees and 200 percent humidity. I knew because my hair told me soon as I sat up in bed.
The higher the hair, the closer to God, and I got closer to God with each passing, sweltering hour.
It was 175 degrees and 200 percent humidity, so I did what any good and reasonably sane mother would do: I loaded up the kids and went to the county fair in town.
Because this was our only chance before they packed up the carnival and quilting projects, put the horses away, sold all the 4-H steers and took the show rabbits off of ice and back home to safety.
Plus, they were selling giant glasses of freshly squeezed lemonade, which taste really good after lugging a 30-pound 2-year old across the parking lot because she suddenly wants to “hold you.”
Yeah, if only she could hold me. “One day child, one day,” I said quietly to myself, her sweat melting into my sweat as she began sliding down my legs at the food stand where the two of us had a 175-degree decision to make between pizza or hamburgers while my nephew spun around us in the wheels he strapped to his shoes so he “wouldn’t have to expend so much energy.”
Kid had the right idea. So did the lady who took one look at me as I trudged across the asphalt dragging a wagonful of children as if I was on the last legs of a yearlong trek across the Sahara. She handed me a handful of Popsicles and saved my life.
Ah, the county fair. It’s always hot at the county fair.
Unless it’s hot and windy.
Or windy and raining.
I stuck one Popsicle down my shirt and handed the melting children the rest and continued our journey past the livestock sale toward the carnival for a flashback to all of the sweat that trickled into my eyes when I was a 4-H kid standing in my long-sleeved white shirt holding on tight to the halter of my clean-enough horse.
Which reminded me of the once-a-year horse-washing ritual I would perform on my mare in the grassy backyard, complete with hose, Mane ‘nTail and a ShowSheen finish only to wake up to an open gate and a horse that escaped to the nearest mudhole. That happened more than once.
But still, we persist. In 175 degrees or 175 mph winds. In the name of the county fair. And big, godly hair.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch... 
Jesse thanks again for making the wheels turn. I think my Mom and dad took younger sis Nanc and I to every rodeo and Pow Wow in ND from for me 7 to 14 and we loved it all!!
I’m in MN now and know what its like to sweat but sometimes it just rolls in my eyes. At first a dribble can make its way and then they all do after that. Salty and tear producing for sure.
I can proudly say I last showed ANY horse at the ND State Fair in 2003 or 04. We got third in every aged mare class (she was eight) but it was one of the best days of my life!!! Elly held 15 AQHA Grands and !3 Reserve Championships prior to our last meager showing.
It was Elly who’d weaned her fourth baby at the end of April and dragged confused and a little pissed from the pasture to receive a bath, clipping, total mane and tail overhaul and general makeover. Including a clipper to the nose for the coarse hairs there resulting in the biggest gob of snot being blown directly in my face as a result of such annoying tickling of her snout. I was the offender in her world that day. But we drove 400 miles to Minot and took a solid third place both days under both judges and we retired for good. 🙂
Thank you for reminding me of some of the best memories of my life!!! You are AWESOME!!!
PS Miss Elly is our only horse these days and retired to a wonderful place at 22 years and 9 babies well raised! 🙂
175 degrees and 200 percent humidity. Loving that description.
You’re a fun mom. Your kids are so lucky to have you.
Oh I remember the summer fairs of my youth, smelling like my sweating 4-H Horse, cotton candy, caramel corn and grease from the french fry wagon. You captured it perfectly! And it was always 175 degrees with 200 percent humidity – Truth! 🙂 MJ