local holidays

If I lived in Ellensburg, Washington I would have my weekend choice of the World Famous Rodeo or Kittitas County Fair. (or both! Why would I have to choose only one? Cotton candy poisoning is the only reason I can think of.)

BUT, since I live in Portland not Ellensburg, I'm going to the State Fair instead! Things I hope to see: livestock (goats and sheep are so cute I could just die), some kind of butter sculpture, prize winning doily collection (or likewise), the booth where they make lime rickeys and other gatsby-inspired-monty-burns-approved old fashioned libations, the ferris wheel, champion zinnias and so on! Maybe there will be a fight amongst the chutney judges!! I'm hoping for a brawl that ranges all over the exhibition and winds up near the Potato Board booth so someone can start chucking those sweet starchy missiles and launch a full-fledged food fight. It is my fondest wish that this fight erupt over the use of pineapple. Clipboards smashing down, lines being drawn, pineapple partisans and the pineapple opposition finally have it out, State Fair Style.
"It's an overly sweet chutney cliche."
"It is a CLASSIC, you son of a whore!"
A profane blur of plaid shirts and bolo ties -- grandmothers covering children's ears, gum falling out of bystander's mouths. I can hardly wait. I'm going to the preserve judging tent first, unless I get distracted by the World's Largest anything on my way over.

Anyway, I love the combination of wholesome old-fashioned agrarian celebration with the seedy itinerant charms of the carnival. Not the kind of thing I want to do every day, but every few years the urge must be satisfied.