Dingle County annual one day fair

Dingle County annual one day fair

fiction
edward w pritchard


Set up and shut down had to be done the same day at the Dingle County annual one day fair for there was a lot of work to do at home and around the farms the other 364 days of the year.

Children called shut down time tear up time because a year was a long time to wait to go from booth to booth to see what each family had grown on their farm to sell, like sweet grape and chicory pie sold for 30 cents a slice by Mrs. Porter or miniature pictures of Reverend Davis playing blues piano in St Louis as a young man. .   

Women and older teenage girls called tearing down the booths and the concession stands tear up time because it would be a long time before they could stand with their friends again and talk and talk or watch Shuty Mc Donald with his shirt off bend an iron bar onto a pretzel.

Grown Men at the Dingle County fair weren't much help to their wives during shut down because the Bekerman's the Mennoite family who were a little standoffish always sold spiked corn mash as a " Spring Tonic" and the sheriff always waited to late afternoon to put his finger in the crock and roll his eyes and wink at one of the Bekerman boys laddling out the sauce.

This year I knew what everyone meant about calling the end of the Spring Fair tear down time when the booths were dismantled and packed into old trucks and station wagons till next year. I saw Claudia Benson with Bobbi Guyt in his new Marine's uniform strolling around from stall to stall with his hand and arm around the lowest part of her waist. Old Reverend Davis knew just how I was feeling and played me a special song or two mixed in among the religious pieces he always played there at the Davis family booth at our County Fair. Mostly I just stood with the Davis family and listened to Reverend play. 

It's been sixty eight years since I had spring tonic or chicory pie but many an early morning I wake thinking of Claudia.
end

to my critic- yes, this is a reworking of the " jilting of Granny Weatherall" by Katherine Porter who I wrote about a few blogs back under " looking up Katherine Porter's skirts" meaning I have finally acquired  some secret wisdom about women.