Throwback Thursday # 32: Thursday Before State Fair

"The older I grow the more earnestly I feel that the few joys of childhood are the best that life has to give." ~Ellen Glasgow

There were a lot of school days where I was pretty worthless through out my elementary/high school days. I'm thinking back in particular to the time that we decorated the ITV room with toilet paper, balloons and streamers and then spent the rest of the day burning paper with a space heater, which caused a big investigation into whether or not there may have been an electrical fire. (Mrs. F....if you read this, don't be mad!) But I can promise you, there was no day where I was more worthless than the Thursday before the State Fair every year.

You know how when you're a little kid, you can't sleep the night before Christmas because you were so excited about the next day? Yea--imagine that instead of trying to sleep you were trying to pay attention in math class. No dice. Anyway, once the school day finally ended (and we finally finished playing our volleyball game that was always scheduled that night--usually against Texico) we FINALLY got to go home and get ready for the best week of the year.

That night we would spend getting all of the last minute items in the showbox, loading feeders, making sure we had feed, and hay (including enough for when the Perez brothers would need to mooch). Then we would go to the house to pack our clothes, shower stuff, sleeping bags, jackets, boots......you know the drill. After the poor truck and trailer were loaded down, we would get a couple hours of sleep and then wake up early in the morning to head for Albuquerque. (Note that digital cameras did not exist back in my day--so I have no pictures of any of this to share with you!)

When I was really young, the whole county met up and went at midnight. I remember everyone all bundled up and running around to say hi to our friends as we waited at the fairgrounds to leave. But that sort of ended at some point around my freshman year or so. It was just too many people being late and too many blowouts on the way and getting to Albuquerque too early which meant sitting in the parking lot for hours. Instead, Logan FFA started meeting up and leaving out at about 4 in the morning. This stopped a lot of the sitting in the parking lot--but not the blow out issues. I remember once Mr. F calling as we were pulling out of the driveway to meet everyone at the truck stop to tell us that another family already had three blow outs between Logan and Tucumcari, which is about 24 miles! Needless to say we headed for the shop to load up several spares.

The trek to State Fair was only the beginning of an awesome week. I'll blog more about the actual State Fair events next Thursday. Once we arrived, there was unloading and feeding and sending someone to the dorms to get a bed in the corner (very important). After all of that there was naptime, from which I would always wake up and wonder if it was the same day or the next morning (and from which I got the nickname Sunshine when I forgot to brush my hair after said nap time one year!)

Today is the Thursday before the 2010 State Fair. I would sure love to be a kid again, packing up the show box and heading to meet everyone at Loves at 4 am.....flat tires and all!