Sunday, September 14, 2014

something wicked this way comes


Where do all these people come from.   I think my mother has said this same thing. I can't believe I too am guilty.  The Fair is visually explosive or assaulting depending on your mood.  I love the Fair although there is a feeling of unease I have at everyone I have ever attended.  It is like driving by a train wreck.  I can't help myself.  I got to look.  

The Tennessee State Fair doesn't have that wholesomeness you see at smaller county fairs.  The carnies are more sinister, the crowd is more intense. This year it was arriving at a more comfortable family affair.  There remains a creepiness to it for me though.  Like I have gone into a world where I am not suppose to be.  Eerie green lighting, homemade tattoos, smells that co-mingling in a not so pleasant aroma, questionable entertainment and food you know better not to eat.  But the whole feel of the Fair was milder all together.  I remember hawkers in the past bordering on rude and drunken, tawdry language violating my finer sensibilities, burlesque shows with women parading around on stage in pasties and panties.  Rarely did I go to the Ag. Centers or the Frontier section usually situated far away from the mayhem.  In the past I couldn't drag myself away from the scandal of the Midway.  This year the animals and rodeo was the place we found reprieve.  Even then  the whole business of hauling farm animals around from county to city to state was as surreal as the carny collective.