The Kentucky state fair opened yesterday for it's annual ten-day run. I give major props to the fair goers that braved the 105 degree temperature yesterday as they trudged through the midway. But other than the midway, the beer tents, and some food booths, everything else is inside in air conditioned comfort. In fact, the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center holds the record by having over one million square feet of air conditioned indoor space. As a kid, and even today, I'm still amazed that the cows, pigs, and other livestock stay in air conditioning at the fair. I bet they look forward to going to the fair as much as I did, just so they could get out of the hot sun and stuffy barns for a few days.
As a kid, the fair was one of the highlights of summer. Even though to me it marked the official end of summer and beginning of school, it still rocked. Our family trip to the fair was always the first Saturday of the fair. We would leave the house at about 9:00 in the morning and wouldn't get home until after midnight. As soon as we got there, the first thing we would do was get a corn dog and a lemon shake-up, even though we had breakfast just an hour before. We'd start out by looking at the military displays and the Budweiser Clydesdales that were at the fair almost every year. Then we would visit the West Wing and check out the livestock and agriculture exhibits. We'd also look at the quilts (Mom's favorite) and the 4-H exhibits (my favorite).
After the West Wing, we would check out the wonderful WT-filled midway. My fascination with all things WT began at an early age, and still continues today. Mom and Dad would walk with me through the entire length of the midway, stopping to let me ride on the few rides that I would get on, which was usually the pony rides and the bumper cars. I would play a few games, but never really got into the midway carnie games very much. I always wanted to do the toss-the-ping-pong-ball-in-the-goldfish-bowl game, but since we would be there at the fair all day long, the fish wouldn't have lasted very long after I won him.
On our way out of the midway, we would stop at the big Great Kentucky Cook-Out tent for lunch. We would always have the same thing every year: melt-in-your-mouth ribeye steak sandwiches and lemonade. To this day, I have never had a ribeye steak as tender as those, not even in expensive steakhouses. But I digress. After we ate, we would walk back through the West Wing so we could stay in the air conditioning, and would stop in Freedom Hall and watch the free afternoon session of the horse show. Sure, we all three love horses, but this was the unofficial rest period of the day. We would stretch our in the seats as the show was going on, and would relax and usually end up dozing off for a bit. We weren't embarrassed about falling asleep at the free horse show, because there were dozens of other fair goers around us doing the same thing.
After we caught our second wind, we would head over to the coolest part of the fair, the East Wing. The East Wing has the booths where you get all kinds of cool free stuff, and lots of free plastic bags to carry the free stuff. We would have our bags full of pencils, emery boards, cups, refrigerator magnets, and the list goes on and on. One of the most popular freebies back in the day was the old school wooden yardstick. And it's still a popular freebie today. While in the East Wing, we would stop at Hudson's Fudge stand. I'll always remember the sign they had on their stand - "Like Grandma tried to make." A trip to the fair was not complete until you got some creamy peanut butter fudge.
Once we left the East Wing, we would see some of the free shows; yet another opportunity to stretch out and rest our tired feet. We'd end up at one of the many gigantic music tents and would listen to whatever band was playing while we ate our supper of more corn dogs and Italian sausage sandwiches. After supper, we'd trudge back to the car and drop off our bags of free stuff, and would freshen up. Mom would pack a cooler with some water, ice, and trusty white wash rags. We'd pour some of the ice water on the rags and wash our hot faces. In case of a candy apple emergency, Mom would also have a wet wash rag inside of a plastic bread bag tucked in her purse. She was, and is, prepared.
After freshening up, we would head back into Freedom Hall for the highlight of the day - the rodeo. The rodeo was always held the first weekend of the fair, and during the intermission would be a concert by a big-named country star. I've seen Lynn Anderson (from back in her "Rose Garden" hey day), Crystal Gayle, Eddie Rabbit, Jerry Clower, and Dolly Parton during our years at the rodeo. The stage was pretty simple -- two flat-bed trailers pushed together, but it still sounded awesome.
As I mentioned earlier, we would arrive back home sometime after midnight, dead tired, but I would still be on a high from everything we did that day. Another tradition followed - the Sunday after our trip to the fair was our day of rest, and that was just about the only Sunday that we stayed home from church. I'm pretty sure the Lord didn't mind.
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