The Mississippi State Fair is winding down. The unique smell of fried food and cow manure, plus a week of fair funk, is wafting across the fairgrounds for only a few more days. Barkers try to get you to have them guess your weight, age or how much money you won’t soon have in your wallet. Rides go round and round and round and stomachs go up and down and down and up. Livestock will be judged, kids will make memories and parents will scramble for the ATM. As the heat of summer hangs on a little too long, we’ll enjoy our fried sushi on a stick and pray it doesn’t shoot through us.
Ah, the Fair.
I enjoy the Fair but probably not for the reasons most people do. Sure, I beeline for the free biscuit (best thing going) and love my annual duty as a Pretty Cow Contest judge. But what I enjoy the most is just watching the people. Of course, since this IS Mississippi, you will run into people you know. But it’s just neat to watch every shape, color, economic class and size Mississippian peacefully mingling up and down the Midway. Sure, there are occasional problems. But for the sheer number of people who visit the Fair, it’s really a nice little microcosm of our state. It’s truly the STATE fair. You see a lot of Mississippi walking around.
In a few days, the rides will be disassembled (disturbingly quickly I might add). The carnival workers will move on to their next fairground. The land near the Pearl will be swept and sit dormant until the next event.
I’ll walk around soaking it all in: The smells, the sights and the sounds.
And maybe I’ll spring for some fried sushi. It would do my heart some good.