Where did my week go? I don't think I even mentioned visiting the Tennessee State Fair last weekend, and I definitely meant to because of the racing pigs. I love the racing pigs from Arkansas. I see them at every state and county fair I go to; they're a big attraction these days. Maybe you've seen them? Cute little piglets, squealing pink ones, and the black and white Polands, and a few pot-bellied Vietnamese, tearing (or, in the case of the pot-bellied pigs, ambling) around a miniature racetrack accompanied by tinny recorded race music and the exhortations of a rodeo clown. The pigs race for cookies. The audience sits on rickety metal stands and cheers them while eating corn dogs, funnel cakes, giant pretzels, catfish sandwiches, and other fairground delights. Sometimes I think we're the pigs. But then, that's part of the fun of state fairs.
I took my camera, and we went first thing on Saturday. The Black Angus were being shown, so I sat in the stands and tried to capture the event on film. It was sort of stately, the sight of so many 1000-pound beasts gently swaying around the ring in a bovine minuet with their owners. Afterwards, I wandered (looking carefully at where I was going) among the cattle stalls, photographing cows, getting in the way of young kids brushing their prize heifers, trying for a close-up of a particularly soft-eyed Guernsey. Then it was on to the Swine Barn to admire the enormous porkers in green metal pens, most grunting or squealing with indignation as the others in the pen wiggled around to get more comfortable.
We did not go to the Mule Barn, opting instead to admire the peculiar beauties of the chickens, geese, turkeys, and pigeons in a smaller shed. Man, there are some weird-looking chickens! I wanted to get a close-up of a big Tom turkey but he kept turning away, exactly as if he'd had enough of the media taking his picture for the day. From the turkey shed to the 4-H exhibit was a few steps and I took lots of photos of giant pumpkins, oversize squash, prize-winning hams, blue ribbon tomatos, and a deeply strange exhibit on the importance of potatos. I'll post the photos as soon as I get them developed, I promise. We all need to know more about potatos, I am sure.
After seeing the animals and the vegetables, we visited the Main Exhibition Hall and the photo exhibit. Fortunately for my gravitas, there were no tiny kids in pseudo-Appalachian costume clogging onstage while we looked over the photos. Clogging always makes me laugh like a lunatic, I have to admit. The photos were pretty good this year, though as usual neither of us understood why certain pictures won prizes and others didn't. When we were done in there, we were done with the fair. I didn't want to go to the midway. Midways make me uncomfortable. Something about the workers in the booths makes me feel guilty for having some innocent fun, wasting my money on trying to win a stuffed animal or going on rides that make my stomach turn upside down. I always feel like I have a big sign reading "SUCKER" on my forehead when I walk the midway anywhere. So we didn't go. We drove home and giggled over the pigs again, and lay on the bed with our tummies sticking up in the air from eating so much wonderful state fair food.
I hear next year they're having a Diving Pig. I can't wait.
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