Aah, the fair! This once-a-year experience is something not to be missed! The fair can invoke many memories of days gone by, both good and bad. A day at the fair can be fun, educational, and very tiring!
As children, we ran around taking in the sights and sounds of the midway games and the towering rides, the smell of barbecue and sugary-sweet candy in the air, dizzy with excitement and unable to decide what to do first. We begged our parents for tickets for the rides, and usually they grudgingly gave in. We gorged ourselves, if allowed, on tangy, chewy caramel apples and sweet, melt-in-your-mouth, sugary cotton candy. Then, as teens, the girls and boys went together in groups, the boys competing with each other to win the biggest stuffed teddy bear or cartoon character for his girl playing the ring toss, the basketball shoot, or the balloon-darts. As young adults, we enjoyed accompanying a new sweetheart to a grandstand concert full of country music, lights, and the smell of popcorn and beer, or an up-close-and-personal ride through the tunnel of love.
English: Some marching bands have their members ho...
Sweet corn that has not been husked yet, headed to...
Antonio Scarpa: Anatomy of Olfaction (Smell), c. 1...Those were the days!
The fair is always fun. Whether you go to eat the different and often exotic foods, check out the exhibits, buy things that aren't sold in stores from the many vendors, or sit around listening to a local band, there is always fun to be had. Vendors abound, hawking goods from silver jewelry to the latest satellite-TV technology. The best time is after dark, when the night explodes into a kaleidoscope of colored lights, each ride brightening the horizon while you listen to screams of fear and delight from the riders. Near the closing of the fair, fireworks explode into the air in a variety of colors and shapes, bringing the smell of...