July 4, the fair, and our too-short summer

Is a holiday really a holiday if one doesn't get excused from work on a weekday? The July 4 holiday this year reminds us of how an "artificial" holiday gets carved out sometimes. July 4 was on a Sunday.
Isn't it enough to acknowledge our nation's independence on the proper day and just resume our normal lifestyle on Monday? I guess not.
I'm writing the first draft for this post at 5 a.m. Monday morning, July 5, at which time I'm being informed that the stock market is closed, and the usual Joe Scarborough TV program at 5 isn't on. Adding insult to injury, the MSNBC network (Joe's) is putting one of their prison documentary re-runs on the air for that slot.
There is a certain element of the population that must be captivated by those prison shows. MSNBC relies too much on these re-runs to fill their weekend programming.
Fox News, meanwhile, does much better airing live and relevant shows on the weekend or on holidays. That's profoundly sad because Fox News is a megaphone for the political right wing.
It's 5:05 a.m. right now and I'm noticing that "Fox and Friends" has their weekend personalities (i.e. second-stringers) on the air instead of the usual automatons spouting the tea party-ish talking points. It's embarrassing that the latter category includes Gretchen Carlson, a native of Minnesota. She's joined by Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade. They've been at it for way too long. They need a breath of fresh air.
Tomorrow (Tuesday) we'll see a sense of routine again and we can hold our breath to see if the stock market resumes its tumble. You don't suppose a bailout could be arranged for all the common folk affected by by this, like what George W. Bush arranged for the banks? Not that these were banks as we have come to know them. They're mutant banks. Whatever, their interests are being taken care of. The common folk are treading water.
Perhaps a push-back is already starting as evidenced in those Mark Dayton (for Minnesota governor) TV ads openly suggesting the rich should pay more taxes. Until recently such a message would have been taboo.
There was a time when "trickle down" seemed palatable, but there are too many people hurting now. Maybe the populist message will roll over Fox News and prevail. Populists have been on the defensive for too long.
Not everyone is taking a work day off for the 2010 Independence Day. The Morris Senior Nutrition Center served on Friday and will again today (Monday). Hats off on that.
I'm sure the Hancock community had a festive Fourth celebration with the parade and all the other bells and whistles. Hancock July 4 makes that town a mecca while Morris is in a relative slumber.
Now that the Fourth is past, the dog days of summer will truly set in. Getting ready for the Stevens County Fair will be a priority for a lot of people.
Our fair has grown enormously in the past 30 years. I remember when our fair had fallen into sort of a malaise in the late 1970s. I remember a barber (not Dave Evenson) who remarked with the fair nearing that "if it weren't for the 4-H kids, there wouldn't be much there."
We were inclined to chuckle at such a comment. It just seemed to express reality.
It almost seemed like the institution of the small town county fair was close to becoming an anachronism - a throwback.
I covered our fair for the media for the first time in 1979. The fairgrounds were considerably smaller than they are today. The company running the midway seemed as small-time as you could get. The commercial exhibits were in a rickety-feeling wooden building - a far cry from today's Lee Center.
I remember how the seating was configured in the 4-H foodstand, accommodating far fewer diners than now. And these days it gets packed. There was no outdoor arena for the livestock shows if you can believe that. The 4-H kids would parade their animals on the opposite side of the livestock buildings from now, with no roof overhead and in front of some aluminum bleachers that the City of Morris crew would run in.
We in this county went through a period of an incredible inferiority complex when the Traverse County Fair in Wheaton brought in big-name talent, while we just sort of sat on our hands. Wheaton's run of success with that began with some luck. They parlayed it.
One could sense that the momentum was slowly building for an improved Stevens County Fair. It would not suffer the "anachronism" fate. Quite to the contrary.
We went through a copycat phase as we, too, brought in some big-name entertainment like the Statler Brothers and Ronnie Milsap. It began with Donna Fargo.
Why would these big names bother with small county fairs in the rural countryside? My goodness, we got Donny and Marie (Osmond) here, plus some other names that were big at the time even though they are obscure now (e.g. Charly McLain, who by the way was a woman).
Why would such luminaries come here? Ah, casinos hadn't proliferated yet. Gambling had an immoral stigma. That barrier came crashing down almost without discussion. Casinos became a gold mine for entertainers and they have probably been a particular boon for the smaller-time ones like Sherwin Linton. I'm happy for that.
County fairs have gone back to their staples of earthy grandstand activities, the kind that throw up dirt. Everyone seems happy with that too.
It will be interesting to see if county fairs keep their vitality as outstate Minnesota continues to lose population, and economic travail is felt more here.
But forget about the "anachronism" scenario. County fairs have an appeal that will endure.
After the fair we all start thinking about the school year nearing. Labor Day weekend is one of the "bookend" holidays of summer, the other being Memorial Day which kicks it off.
But Labor Day weekend is rather strange because there are no formal ceremonies to acknowledge it. It's just a three-day weekend. That probably hurts the turnout for the home high school football game if one is scheduled for that weekend (and it would be the opener).
On Labor Day weekend we can kiss goodbye to summer, which always seems a little too short.
-Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com