It's that time of year again, when the teenagers come out to brawl and the adults occupy themselves with binge eating and drinking. The Kentucky State Fair I think they call it.
Had us some unseasonably cool weather yesterday so we had to take advantage of it and headed for the fairgrounds. Things were far less crowded and lively than they'd been for opening weekend, which was okay with us.
Early afternoon on a Wednesday makes for a rather different crowd than on the weekend, lots little kids and retired folks. Then again, the State Fair crowd is a particular bunch unto themselves. The fair is held every year in Louisville but the crowd it draws mostly hails from outside the city. In less partisan days that wouldn't hardly be of note but nowadays it just makes you want to hand out participation trophies for owning the libs.
Lots of folks come to the fair for the rides and the food, others for the amazing arts and crafts. For me though, nothing compares to creatively named South Wing Shops. Somewhere between flea market and infomercial, it is a glorious microcosm of A Merica.
I love the smell of tobacco in the morning. Smells like cancer and child labor. Kentucky still produces seventy percent of this country's burley tobacco so there's always some lovely specimens at the fair. Having helped raise tobacco growing up the smell always lures me in to take a gander.
It can get rather corny at the fair but the taste buds don't seem to mind. Actually, the corn is one of the few foods you can get there that isn't fried. Well, that and the ice cream.
All told it was a pretty fair day.
