Throwback Thursday #59: State Fair Memories

“It's surprising how much of memory is built around things unnoticed at the time.” ~Barbara Kingsolver

Yes, I know it's Wednesday. But I have another post for tomorrow, so we're doing Throwback Thursday a day early. Stick with me.

As I walked around the State Fairgrounds this last week, I felt a sense of nostalgia. I started to think about all of my memories of the State Fair. You know what I realized? It amazes me how a place where I only spent one week out of each year at could have so many memories. You'd think that 1 out of 52 weeks of each year would sort of be a blip on the radar screen of life. But not State Fair.


Those fairgrounds are home to some of my favorite memories.

.......Teacher Friend rushing over to the dorms the minute we arrived to get dibs on the best bunks (fyi--corner farthest from the doors, bathroom and showers) and set up camp.......

.....Earning the nickname Sunshine for going to chores with total bedhead when I was about 15....

.....Mr. Franklin's uncanny ability to automatically remember the declared weight of any animal that any of his kids owned (on the scales that are perpetually 2 pounds light every year).....
.....Dancing our little hearts out in the street in front of Tingley every night.....

.....Wade grabbing me by the arm at one of these said street dances and saying, "It's time for you to leave" after a Led Zepplen concert let out and things got a little hairy and literally walking me back to the dorms.....
.....holding hands with a cute boy on the steps of the dorms......

.....sitting for hours outside dorm number 9 talking to one of my oldest friends, not knowing that would be the last time I'd ever see him.....
....crowding around the only tv on the fairgrounds to watch the horror of 9/11 unfold in front of our eyes........trying to leave to go to dinner with my dad and Mr. Franklin and it taking an hour to get from the pens to the car because they had to stop and talk to everyone along the way.....

.....taking the Little Blonde Headed Kid for ice cream on sale day......
.....Trey smacking his mom with a pig bat and her literally hurdling a fence to beat the crap out of him....

.....winning my first State Fair buckle with my champion cross (and my dad letting me drive to the mall afterwards to buy a new shirt for the dance that night)......
.....Little Brother's pig, Harley, almost winning a banner at the pig show.... .....and that day being the start of my dad's "lucky show day shirt" that he wore for the next 8 years!.....
....BFF making the most proper girl I know scream the F word at him (I mean how could you get mad at that innocent little face??).....
......the Tom Thumb donut stand, where you could always be sure to find Little Brother if he was MIA.....

.......always eating at Steak in the Rough becuase it was the farthest restaurant we were allowed to go to (since we were told by our parents that people died on the Midway)....

.....winning a class with a lamb that I raised myself my very last year to show (a goal I had set for myself when I was about 12 years old)....
But most of all, what I'll never forget are the friendships that I made. With other kids from across the state. With ag teachers from other schools. With parents and grandparents there with their own kids. Looking at things from this side, the State Fair gave me a second family, one that I have a reunion with for a week every September.

So for me, the State Fair is about so much more than fried food and carnival rides. And heck, I guess it's even about more than belt buckles and sale checks. It's about memories. And about a second family. And I can honestly say, I can't imagine my life without them.