Day # 256; Insanity at the Fair

#256

 There were two weddings this past week involving the women in my book.  I'm mentioning happy occurrences because I think it's important for us all to take those happy moments in.  The first was one of the women was remarried by a justice of the peace to a guy she's really crazy about.  And the other one  is one of the relinquished babies in the book and attending the wedding was her original mother and wife.  I love it!!!!  Both of these events are reasons to truly celebrate.  Thanks you all for sharing your updates with me.

We watched the stage standing on the side with a small umbrella, too small to keep the water off my back, charcoal grey skies and the neon lights of the midway rides shining through the late afterrnoon darkness.  We watched the line of entertainers competing in front of judges who had been pushed under the stage tent to stay dry. 

Amber won the adult competition.  The competitors were talented and the crowd was dwindling except for the fans who'd come to watch their friends, cheering them on in spite of the pouring rain pounding down on metal bleachers. One act following the next, women dressed in polyester evening wear and make up; there actually wasn't any pattern.  Each person got up to do their act in rapid succession. 

There was something crazy about the scene.  I couldn't put my finger on why I thought Fellini was directing.  When you are at a fair you are at a party.  People are loud and laughing.  They're going back and forth, chaos, commotion twirling around and on stage.  The sound men changed the recorded professional tapes accompanying dancers all made up and holding time, a circus act won third place in the kids' group  and second went to a blind boy, who could play the keyboard well, but sang too many notes off key, while the eleven year old who was lovely, not flashy, not over the top, just good, won nothing but a warm wonderful smile from a few of her fellow contestants. 

I stood in the rain, I couldn't walk away, fueled by fried dough and maple creme.  The chaos orbiting around the seating; loud voices talking through songs on stage, neon lights speeding up as the Ferris wheel turned around and around and I was soaked through my skin in order to see the next. Was it a kind of definition of insanity?  And when the last act took the stage with a comfortable and professional aura I wanted to tell the crowd to shut up, be polite, listen.  But they didn't, only the judges and the committed like me and my friends zoned in.  He rocked it.  He was great, but again not a winner.

I didn't understand what the criteria were that the judges were using.  They were obviously giving acts points for different characteristics and then they were added up and the highest points won.  They had the job I certainly would not have wanted.  It all felt like comparing apple to oranges.

I am so glad I sat through the show, even though it may have indicated my level of insanity.  And then when we walked into the Roundhouse where they truly were comparing apples to oranges all I could do was smile surrounded by the harvest of farmland displayed at the County Fair.