Something on a Stick!

As a child did you grow up going to the fair?

The fair was something that I participated in from a very young age. I was a 4-H member as well as FFA in high school. I went to the fair and raised and sold an animal ever since I was around 8 years old. Year round we would attend meetings and learn about raising our animals that we would get in the spring time. I would then spend months getting up really early to fed my lamb and walk her/him and get it ready for the fair. I would complain A LOT about the responsibility that went along with raising an animal, and my mom was a lot of help. She pushed me in a good way to take responsibility. I only have fond memories of raising animals.

Well that is, other than the tears and death that went along with the experience. I was raising a poor animal to die a horrid death, for someone to eat my poor lamb. This was something I didn't grasp to well and to this day I still don't eat lamb. I would cry and cry when I would see the big trucks that would take the animals to their death. I couldn't walk into Safeway (they bought my lamb one year) without thinking that my poor lamb was on the meat rack.

The only thing that soothed my tears was the check that I got at the end of that horrible auction on Sunday. I would write my Thank You letter and then I would get my check. Sometimes it was bigger than most (I won grand champion one year) and I would go on my happy way school shopping and to the bank.

Today, all those memories came back to me. I was at the fair at the ungodly hour of 6:30am to help clean the fairgrounds. I could smell the animals, and the little kids running around in their 4-H shirts made me remember my many fond memories of the fair. I have not been back to my local fair in a few years and I think the last time that I went I consumed way too much booze and was betting on horses!

Want to know what the fair in Minnesota has that we don't have in CA?

FOOD ON A STICK! And..............Fried Cheese Curds. And Deep Fried Pickles

Serious, people in the Midwest know how to make a fair that much better. Fried foods on a stick and cheese are two of my new favorite things. They don't fit too well into my diet plan, but we all have to cheat sometimes right?


Do you go to the fair? What is your favorite fair memory?