Monday, August 23, 2004

Our Trip to the Fair I took my brother to the Modoc County Fair in Surprise Valley on Saturday night. (He stands here grinning at lower left; the crescent moon is just visible in the upper-central blackness.) I had the most fun I've ever had at a fair. I finally wore the blue dress and felt very pretty. First, brother Brian got a new cap with an eagle on it to conceal his buzz cut, and a fake policeman's badge from the Highway Patrol exhibit. A very sweaty, very earnest carnie with large gold earring, illegible upper-arm tattoo, and badly bloodshot eyes was so touched and impressed that I wasn't "ashamed" to be seen with my retarded brother in public that he sold us three plastic garden turtles for only six bucks and gave my brother a full-on hug. We saw the ag exhibit, the junior art exhibits, the home crafts exhibits (my friend Melissa won first prize for hand-spun yarn; she should have won for her hand-knit socks, as well). In the horticulture building I was shocked to see the prize-winning houseplants. My giant begonias would have blown them all out of the water. (I must figure out how one enters these things some year.) I rewarded Brian's patience with being dragged from exhibit to exhibit with a hot dog and a quarter-pound of divinity and by taking him to the demolition derby; those just-tolerable decibel levels and bashing about thrilled him to bits. Then I bored him some more at the livestock house--swine, sheep, goats. The rabbits and poultry were asleep for the evening; the horses gazed serenely on the fair's colors and activity from a safe distance in their darkened stables. At the bandstand we watched the cowboys and Indians two-stepping to country-western music for a while. Everyone there was smiling. At last we walked back to the car in the dark, where Sally and Apple were so relieved to welcome us, and drove quietly back over the mountains and home. Our gravel road, our long grass, our porch light in the distance. 12:32:34 PM    comment []