Law and Order

 Detectives James Arendall & Mike Roland have worked the Tennessee State Fair for twenty-four and fifteen years respectively. They have many good stories to tell.

Yesterday, I wrote for three hours in this very space. It was the best blog post I've written in years. Years. Blogger didn't think so. It didn't bother to auto save the thing a single time in three hours. Then I (idiot) closed my browser window by accident and the whole thing disappeared into thin air. Right after that there was a hailstorm of curse words and rage, driving the original words to the far recesses of my mind. Usually I read the thing so many times I can rewrite it very close to the original but not this time. I don't have a key to the creative door, it just flies open on its own occasionally. I tried to begin again but it'll never be the story it was so we move on.

Meanwhile, check it out: Who came up with 'Close, but no cigar'?

Saturday dusk

Skee Ball

Yo

Bumble Bee

Crazy Mouse

For years I avoided taking pictures of the rides at the fair, once they were actually up and running that is. They make a fabulous backdrop and a pretty picture but otherwise there is nothing much special or unique about any of them (them being the photos) especially now that everyone under the sun has a camera in their telephone and doesn't hesitate to use it for better or worse. Now that my connections have pretty much moved on though, I am forced to look at the midway in a new way for a while. It's good exercise, like push-ups. 

Becky and Quincy

We managed to track down Water Gun Becky via Stephen (from the last post) and a couple of other midway regulars that also happen to be cops. More on them later.

"Surely you saw that girl we know with the vampire bite tattooed on her neck" said one of our favorite off-duty detectives, "She's been out here for years."

I couldn't believe there could be such a tattoo I hadn't noticed but sure enough there she was. And no, I did not take a picture of it (another time). Her face of course was familiar but she claimed to have kept "pretty low profile" through the years although inside sources found that statement debatable.

Quincy was spot help at the Tennessee State Fair for years. He and I were neighbors on the midway in 2007. I slept in a truck that year behind the Skywheel and his was just across the grass near the Sizzler. It's an odd feeling to be stepping out of a semi in the morning to start your day and realize how many other people are doing the same exact thing. Show people, ride jocks in particular (and truck drivers naturally) never give it a second thought but for me and Quincy it was totally out of the ordinary.

An unfortunate result of booking a new carnival for the last three years has meant that all of the people from the neighborhood and the surrounding area who used to work at the fair are no longer needed. Quincy stopped by this year to look around for work as he had in years past but up to the point when I took his picture hadn't had any luck. He did get one offer to help with the Euroslide he said but he had to turn them down due to his recent not-so-successful back surgery.

One in Wins

This is Stephen. We've been seeing each other once a year for about eighteen years or something like that. He's very, very good at what he does. A lot of people walk up to his joint assuming he's going to try to rip them off. It takes him about six seconds to change their minds.

Blue-ribbon balloons

Mugboard 2

Mug board at the Tennessee State Fair 

It is no secret that there is turmoil around and within the Tennessee State Fairgrounds. It's a convoluted story for another day yet at this moment in time I have to wonder why the Fair Board chose to make a decision about rent hikes for next year, three days before the Tennessee State Fair opened. Why not a month ago? Or a month from now? Was someone hoping it would get lost in the cotton candy stories? I don't know but I do know that a rent increase is the weapon of choice for landlords who are shopping for new tenants. If new tenants aren't available well then, the property sits idle. It begins to look bad and people who used to care eventually give up on it.

Rent hike distresses vendors at TN fairgrounds' sites

Bumble Bee(s)

Apples and bugs

Apparently there's a praying mantis at the fair big enough to eat hay.

Waiting to show

I've been trying, with little success to get back over to the fairgrounds. Suddenly work came along and as great as everyone thinks it is to have a flexible schedule (it is, I'm not whining - too much), it does have it's downside occasionally. I've been consumed by one thing or another since last Friday night. Again, not complaining just annoyed. It isn't something I can shoot just any old time. It's like missing a wedding. All you can do once it's over is watch the video.

Ten years ago today

The crew of the Dream Machine takes a few minutes to reflect on the days events; September 11, 2001

On the morning of September 11, 2001, I woke up in the doghouse of the Skywheel at the Tennessee State Fair.  It was cool and damp as it always seems to be that time of year and I remember sitting up in the hammock and wishing for a clean pair of socks before heading out with my camera to Gracie's cookhouse for roll call. The early risers were already there Lefty, T.J. Smitty, Wayne Kunz.

Always cheerful in the morning, Lefty poured me a big cup of coffee. I handed him a dollar and sat down at the nearest table. A small television situated on the counter, rattled off the morning news and traffic reports. They were showing the national radar when the first newscaster broke in. In the minutes that followed we didn't know what we were looking at. After that no one could believe it.

Hardly anyone came out to the fair that day. At seven o'clock in the evening, right after the lights on the midway had been turned on, all the ride jocks stopped their rides and stood facing the Skywheel for a few minutes in a mutual show of respect to those whose lives had changed forever that morning, while we were all at roll call.

Observations

North American Midway Entertainment's Century Wheel sits unadorned at the top of the hill in Nashville, just a couple of days before the 105th kickoff of the Tennessee State Fair

Only yesterday I had a conversation with a gentleman about how dismal most media coverage is of state and county fairs throughout the country. A long history of Google news alerts would indicate that news and feature stories about the fair usually fall into three categories: ride safety and/or rigged games, background checks for carnival workers, and what I like to call - the cotton candy story. This includes a wide range of feel-good topics covering everything from blue-ribbon Pygmi goats to deep fried butter. They are rarely original, much less creative.

Fortunately, the Hutchinson (Kansas) News missed the memo.
Two entertaining and worthwhile reads here:

Cab driver's a waiter - as in waiting for fair customers by Kathy Hanks

And, the much lighter yet still interesting: Overheard at the fair

Poultry

Willie

Blizzard

Scooter

Water

Fairgrounds & Setup