...I'd have to say it was a pretty amusing day. And a pretty day, just to be alive, even without all the amusing part. Bright sunshine, clear cloudless sky, amazingly cool weather. Here in middle GA, summer heat often drags on until well into November. We can have short-pants weather until nearly Christmas. But Saturday was perfect. Here in the land of rabid football fans who live for Saturday games in the SEC, we'd call it perfect tail-gating weather. I predict everyone in all those college stadiums across the southern states got sunburned while cheering on their favorite team.
F. and I had been thinking, talking occasionally for several years of the entertainment value of going to the GA National Fair: primarily to see the agricultural exhibits. Located in central GA, at the state owned fairgrounds, adjacent to I-75 in Perry, GA. We were hoping for lots of high school 4-H and FFA projects: cows and chickens, goats and sheeps. And a goodly number of cheesy exhibits that looked like something you would see at a middle school science fair. Only less well done, and more hurriedly put together, as generally occurs on the night before the teacher requires it to be at school.
And it pretty much all happened. The overpriced concession stand food: corndogs for $7, giant pretzels for $5, fresh roasted corn for $3 an ear, along with things that never occurred to you could be deep fried.(Would you believe pop tarts? Me neither -it makes me queasy to even write about it!) But were there available for consumption before getting on those rides that cause you to loose everything you have eaten all week.
Lots of beautiful hand crafts: gorgeous quilts by people who obviously had years of experience with design, piecing, and assembly. Handmade beaded jewelry. Hand wrought/turned wood bowls and decorative pieces. Professional quality photography. Plus lots of those same crafts that were obviously done by students who were not so skilled and experienced but obviously willing to invest their time. All assigned varying degrees of accomplishment through judging, and ribbons of various colors awarded for levels of skill and competency, as well as just amazing products. Oh - and jars of preserved vegetables and fruits: jam, jellies, beans, pickles, apples, corn, herbs - and some things I would never think to preserve, 'put by' in canning jars.
We walked through all the exhibits, saw hundreds of beef and dairy cows, in various stages of readiness, being prepared by student owners for competition judging. Lots of goats, all saying what goats say. Dozens of sheep, neatly sheared, all telling us what they thought about the crowds, confusion, unfamiliar environment. We did not spend much time looking at the middle and high school educational exhibits, but there were hundreds of those. We were disappointed to not see the poultry out in force. I reminded her about going to the fair when they were small and seeing chickens in cages with feathered feet, and hundreds of pigeons. There was an educational area about the value of the poultry industry in GA, and how chickens are grown, and some eggs in an incubator that were hatching out wee little fuzzy biddies, no birds for judging/competition. Lots of rabbits though, in all sizes and colors, and a surprising number of guinea pigs, also called 'cavy'. I know rabbits can be a food source, but not sure why one would raise the cavy.
We walked the length of the midway, observed people screaming on rides they had paid good money and deliberately let themselves be secured on, then yelling 'bloody murder' for the duration. That does not appeal to me at all. As we were heading toward the exit, hoping we could find the car in those thousands parked in the open field, we stopped for a pig race. You had to pay close attention or miss it entirely. It was amusing, but happened so fast - it was over in a blink. They ran around a 150 foot track with an oreo as the prize for the winner. Mr. Robinson, the propreitor of' Robinson's Racing Pigs' had them run three times, so I guess he realized some of us, sitting right there on the bleachers, didn't see it happen.
We spent about four hours there - walking for miles, but pretty much saw all the exhibits, which was the reason I wanted to go. Not for the rides that make you urp, or the concession stand food that is soaked in grease, but mostly to see all the 'made in Georgia' stuff. And remarkably found our car to depart with amazing ease.
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