Growing pains at our county fair?

In the always-room-for-improvement category, from an email from a friend on this Sunday morning:

I heard that the featured performer in the grandstand show Friday night wasn’t very good - lots of complaints on the Facebook today.

 

Maybe it's time to expand the Stevens County Fair? Expand the grounds or expand parking? This year for the first time I noticed a couple "park and ride" signs at remote places like Grandstay and Hudson Inn. A friend told me the feature was offered last year too. A "shuttle system" to the fairgrounds as it were. 

And after dealing w/ the fair this year, I most certainly say "amen" on the shuttle idea. Man, the situation gets congested out there. 

I finally navigated the situation by walking or riding bike. There is no obvious place to park one's bike. Well, there's another feature that the fair people might consider. I just went out beyond the Lee Center lot and parked my bike in the weeds. A friend wondered if I was worried about someone stealing it. Fortunately I use a bike of zero value, deteriorated. Gets me from point A to point B still. 

Walking? My body is still in good enough shape. 

My friend who made the bike comment was a high school classmate. Isn't it neat to renew old acquaintances at the fair like this? I was reminded of our changed times, bigly you might say: her party included a younger brother who I had only vaguely known in a previous time. He was accompanied by his same-sex partner. Introduced literally as a spouse. We take such things in stride today. Older people who are inclined to think it's strange or objectionable will still be polite and keep their composure in this situation. 

Change rolls forward and the protest voices are just that: voices. They diminish with time just like the secessionist voices of the U.S. Civil War. The Union was correct in describing the movement as a (mere) rebellion. Voices of discontent, that's all. It's a part of human nature. 

In that vein I'll note that I saw several Steve Boyd T-shirts out and around. That's the fellow who appears to think our incumbent congressperson is not conservative enough. Hell's bells, just consider that for a very long time we had a Democrat representing this district! Today we are so "red" we are just bleeding it. I even saw the Steve Boyd booth at the fairgrounds exhibit building. I walked up to the people and said "Doesn't Michelle Fischbach have the endorsement of Donald Trump?" A very good question, I might note. 

The Trump followers out here have behaved like total cult members. So it's surprising that some within this "red" crowd would find that the Trump-endorsed person is not good enough for them. Is this like the Confederacy of the Civil War? Futile? 

I'm sure if I were to meet Steve Boyd, it would be a pleasant encounter. I don't know what makes people like that so regressive in many of their views. And why isn't the "nationwide abortion ban" in the national Republican platform? Huh? Why? "Life begins at conception." That's what Boyd believes. 

Will the Democrats ever have a shot at anything out here again? The local Dems did venture to have a booth at the fair. I wonder if these people feared for their physical safety. I saw the official Republican Party booth not far from the Boyd people. Nice red signs promoting the sexual assault perpetrator for president. Trump would be in bigger trouble now if he hadn't been able to pack the Supreme Court with his people. They will absolutely protect him. 

I have read that the Minnesota State Fair has become a problem because the people are so absolutely thick on the grounds, it can be literally hard to walk through. I have actually read of real annoyance about this. I was reminded of this Saturday afternoon at our Stevens County Fair. That's when I encountered my high school classmate and her full family party by the old "rest cottage." 

I think there's a newer rest cottage now. I remember when I was with the newspaper and Eleanor Killoran made a big push to resuscitate the old rest college. A very nice idea and I rather puffed it on the front page. How can you deny the wishes of such a sweet old woman? Let's be honest: she was a little eccentric too. 

I think it was her eccentric trait that made her want to re-establish the outdoor performing stage - i.e. "bandshell" - at East Side Park. She pushed through that idea as well and it has simply cost city taxpayers money for maintenance. Let's observe that the idea of an outdoor stage at the park was a miserable failure. 

These "donors" shouldn't be doing us these "favors." Someone donates for something rather superfluous like some kind of "arts" facility and there are ongoing maintenance expenses that can be considerable. Not long ago I saw someone perched up high on a crane doing some touch-up painting at the Killoran building. It really is a "building." Don't tell me a contractor like that comes cheap. 

I can remember the people for whom things are named in this town. Our former football field was called "Coombe field." It's gone now but I still remember Bill Coombe. I remember his old colleagues commenting on how he set himself up for retirement so perfectly and then he died quickly. Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die, I guess. 

Mr. Coombe liked referring to himself in the third person.

I knew Don Chizek for whom the baseball field is named. I kept stats for the Tiger baseball team in a long-ago time. Remember how "scorecards" were hawked at the old Metropolitan Stadium? That whole system for recording a baseball game has faded into obsolescence. I used it for our high school. So long ago: Why do I even bring it up? The past can be instructive.

Eleanor Killoran was my accompanist for the high school music contests. I literally went to her home. The late Howard Moser and I would talk about how her place seemed kind of "spooky." I smile. Definitely an eccentric older person but object of affection too. John Inman told me the story about how she'd park right in front of Willie's, not to drop someone off but to just "park there." Lots of stories about interesting people in a small town. Maybe a few circulating about yours truly. 

So today it can be hard to walk through the fairgrounds - such a crush of people. And parking gets so congested we need a "park and ride" system from remote places. It's all so wonderful, right? And I am amazed that I hear virtually no complaints about prices for concessions that strike me as quite high. Well I am 69 years old. Believe me, people from an earlier time would faint about the prices today. 

So we're totally comfortable with inflation. I don't think we should be, but we are. We are on the verge now of seeing the Federal Reserve begin a new round of "rate cuts." Rate cuts have come to be like heroin injections. Whenever storm clouds appear for the economy, it's rate cuts and money printing by the Fed that we all rely on. In my opinion this will work until it simply doesn't. There is no free lunch. Hey that's kind of a conservative thought, isn't it? Maybe I'm sort of conservative after all. 

Maybe this country actually is careening toward a crisis. 

It appears that the perpetrator of sexual assault has a real chance of being president again. He'll seize control of the Federal Reserve. He'll seize control of everything. We all have gotten so "conservative," we may feel satisfaction with Liz Cheney, Mark Milley and others put on trial and sentenced to death. Lethal injection? Firing squad? Everything that seems outlandish with Trump slowly ends up becoming normalized. 

People have no qualms about a sexual assault perpetrator becoming our president. I think the people of past times in this community would faint over that. The late Truman Carlson was the most "proper" citizen you could ever find, by any criteria. He felt he had to leave his ELCA church. "Gay rights" was flashpoint. Carlson if he were alive today would be front/center promoting Donald Trump. So I find the human animal to be very perplexing and mysterious at times. 

Everyone is so happy and optimistic today. I grew up when boys had to worry about being sent to Vietnam to die, to die violently. And the American people were like sheep about this for a very long time. They believed John Wayne. 

Well today our society countenances Donald Trump. The power of the entertainment industry where Trump built his identity. We get fooled every time, don't we?

"Forgive them Lord for they know not what they do."

 

Addendum: My old high school friend who I reference was in the Twin Cities when the bridge fell into the river. As was I. A cousin of hers had told me about her experience once, how she had some serendipity: she was delayed at one point, otherwise she might have been in danger from the tragedy. 

Me? I was in the Twin Cities for a reunion concert of the old Bill Chase band at the Minnesota Music Cafe in St. Paul. I was with Del Sarlette. We phoned our families upon arrival to tell them we were OK. The concert went off as planned. 

Bill Chase RIP

We could see TV screens around the room that had constant updates on the bridge calamity. We couldn't hear the audio because of the concert, and the Chase band was known to be loud! Well it was from the 1970s. You might remember it was a trumpet-oriented group. "Get It On," that was their biggest hit. 

The band was known to have died in a plane crash in southern Minnesota. They could still have a reunion concert because of "alums." Plus there was the special guest from Japan who could play the high notes just like Bill Chase. This was Eric Myashiro. Del and I had a good time. And my high school friend got through unscathed also. 

On Saturday I made the pledge to her that I will have my Caitlin Clark song recorded. It's nice to have a feeling of commitment now. C'mon Brian let's get going.

 

Remember Dave Holman? He's at right in this photo I took in 2012 at the fair. He was sort of a Harold Stassen with his political habits. Dave was a long-time media specialist at our public schools. Long ago we called these people "librarians." Dave was running for something when the photo was taken. A "surrogate" is at left! Dave has passed on to the next life. Word is, it was covid.
 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com