The Fair 2009

The Fair has come to mean different things to me over the years. As a small child, the Fair was a place of wonderment. It was something that was big, exciting and loud. It was also a place that my Dad, an Agriculture teacher, was in his element. It was like going to a museum with your own tour guide. He knew what all the antique farm equipment was and explained which cows were probably going to win prizes and why. We also visited all the buildings that we now skip. The ones with pottery, jams, crafts, etc.

As I got older, it became a place to bring a date and ride the Himalaya with.  You were guaranteed to get close.  It also was a time where I got to try a lot of different foods.  The Raleigh area hadn’t yet become the diverse area that it is now.  Barbecue and other Southern cuisine were still the dominant culinary choices.  The smells that the Fair offered seemed very exotic to me.  Speaking of exotic, the Burlesque Show was still a part of the Fair when I was younger.  I remember thinking this was something very, well, strange.

As I got older, the Fair lost a lot of its magic and became a place that seemed dirty and over priced.  I still liked the food, but it was by no means exotic any more.  Deep frying anything, although funny, seemed a bit nauseating.  The only reason Amy and I went was to eat and people watch.  People watching at the Fair is just delicious.   There are people there that haven’t left their hometown since the same time last year.  The same type of people can also be found on one of my latest favorite sites, People of Walmart.

Then we had kids and they finally reached an age where we couldn’t just eat and watch, or skip entirely.  Getting the kids out of bed on the day we are going to the Fair is as easy as it is on Christmas morning.  They were so excited this year.  Everything came full circle.  The Fair took on an air of wonderment again.  The lights, sounds and smells were reflected in their faces.  It was probably one of the best Fairs ever this year.

We took a few pictures with our iPhones.