Fair Enough

After years of ducking and dodging, I finally agreed to go to the Erie County Fair in Hamburg, NY. My wife grew up and that area, and for some ungodly reason, she's got some nostalgic feelings about it. Maybe it was the summers serving bacillus at the Pig and Ox roast, or the smells of grease, smoke and cow feces that maker her remicisce. Either way, hopefully her thirst for walking aimlessly among the toothless, tattoed denizen of Erie County has been quenched with this last visit.

My visiting niece and nephew enjoyed the Demolition Derby, as did my son. We did have a nice precursor on our way, though, as some jackass ran a red light and t-boned a pick-up truck on McKinley Parkway (Yet another reason I'd never live in the suburbs; not only are the roads heavily trafficked, but people seem to drive like morons on them). My son, of course, thought that was part of the show.

Two hours and $102 in admission fees later, we left; my niece, feeling a little sick to her stomach from her food, and I, feeling a little sick to my stomach from this. Am I the only one who finds this tasteless? What's next: a Twin Towers bounce house or a Kursk dunking booth? Whoever thought up this inflatable Titanic slide should be tethered to a stereo blasting Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" through cheap Radio Shack speakers.