It's A Grand Night

The Minnesota State Fair is here!

For generations my family has been freakishly fanatical about fairs and carnivals.  Diggy even worked for a carnival for a short stint ~ a giant lumbering above the small children he would tell them "you cry, you don't ride."  And there's my dad has worked at the Minnesota State Fair for over 45 years. 

I've been going to the State Fair for as long as I can remember.  One year when I was quite young I wasn't feeling very well.  It broke my heart because I couldn't go on any spinny fun rides for fear I would hurl up the meager bites of Peters Wieners we had for lunch.  My grampa took me for a ride on the Sky Ride so I wouldn't have to leave the fair ride-free. 

One thing I used to dream about when I became a budding young lady was going to the fair with a boy.  We could go on the rides and he could try to win a stuffed animal for me to take home.  Best of all we could walk around holding hands.  Tres romantique!  Those dreams did eventually come true and they were as marvelous as I imagined. 

Now when Husby and I go to the fair we don't go on too many rides nor does he try to impress me with his hank-a-pank prowess.  But we do walk around holding hands, and now and then we take a little ride through Ye Olde Mill...the tunnel of love.

There's romance in the air at the fair.  After a long day of walking around, eating too much, and experiencing general sensory overload the sun goes down and the lights go up.  The glow of the carnival is as flattering to a girl as candlight.  And when you're walking around hand-in-hand with that guy you dreamed about the thousands of people surrounding you seem to be mere props in a scene made especially for you two.

I'll never stop seeing the fair through the eyes of a young girl, and my heart will always beat a little faster when I'm holding hands in the midst of it all.