Back in the early 1960s, our family of five drove the 100 miles southeast
from our Olivette home through and to an off-and-on rain. Our destination was the Du Quoin (IL) State
Fair.
I still remember walking through those closed off streets, going on fun
kiddie rides, playing games and eating on the go. So, when my girlfriend Pam mentioned she
wanted to spend just one day away this Labor Day weekend, the choice was a
simple one for me.
This past September 1 got off to a comparable start as the skies alternated
mist, drizzle and moderate rain on the first half of our drive. Luckily, it cleared up for the remainder of
the day, including the 7-hour and 15-minute visit back to my early childhood
days! But due to motion sickness and eventual direct, intense sunlight, I
traded rides and games for memorable entertainment in this true, small town
feel event.
Entering the main gate at 11 a.m. sharp, we first perused the food booths
of Main Street and Grandstand Avenue. We
were immediately concerned with the overabundance of corn dogs, but settled
into a picnic table inside an R. Buckminster Fuller designed geodesic dome to
eat chili cheese fries and pizza.
About the pizza…That latter booth offered cricket pizza, mealworm pizza
and scorpion pizza. Yes, they were real
dead pieces of those critters. Nevertheless, Pam opted for the traditional thin crust, non-authentic,
fake cheese variety.
We then explored the map I had printed out and the schedule Pam printed,
then walked back to the Bairds Petting Zoo tent. The schedule showed it as a 4 p.m. event, but
it’s a petting zoo! Surely, we could
enter at any time! We did and had a
blast!
Although the fair’s people food was definitely overpriced, not so for us
actually hand-feeding the animals!
Soooooo much food poured out for every quarter that each hand held
enough food for two animals! With palms
up, we were thrilled to feed several goats, donkeys and cows, including the
Scottish Highland variety!
Our only disappointment for the day was an absolute positive for the
fair. The purpose of the Duck Derby
Parade was to sell ducks with money going to the Special Olympics, and to be
raced in the Duck Derby Dash just two hours later. Well, the ducks were completely sold out
before the day’s parade even started! There
was still a very short parade featuring a huge yellow duck!
We spent equal time in the Democrat and Republican Party tents and
explored a few gift shops. The day’s entertainment also featured four different
bands playing a fairly wide gamut of music, but we saved the three best forms
of entertainment for the very end!
First was the Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show. Of course, there were three lumberjacks
dressed in red and black checked shirts.
I can’t even remember the man’s name, but his narration was extremely
comical as the audience sat in two long bleachers with several dozen others
overflowing onto the sides and well behind the bleachers on a slightly shaded
hill.
Perhaps his name was Paul as in
Paul Bunyan or Jack as in LumberJACK.
There was no ox named Babe, but two young babes named Gretchen and
Anastasia, who for the most part, were locked in competition against one
another. There was axe throwing, log rolling, log sawing and log splitting
competitions in this “Land of Lincoln” event.
In fact, for the latter, they asked three men from the crowd how long it
would take Anastasia to split entirely through a log of about 7-8 inches in
diameter. The first guy guessed two
minutes. I guessed 40 seconds, thinking
those people were pretty experienced in this kind of show. The final guy guessed 90 seconds. It took Anastasia 55 seconds. So, I went up there, was interviewed and
claimed my large wood chip prize!
Although it appeared to be a rabbit-eared wood item, another parting
gift, when turned upside down, was a chair given to a lower grade school
girl. It was chopped by Lumber Jack.
Still, the best gift was the silly commentary and play on words from all three
performers!
The next event on our itinerary was experiencing some of the thrills and
chills of the world famous Nerveless Nocks. Created in Switzerland back in 1840, the group
is known to have performed death-defying acts in far too many places to note.
On this afternoon, we observed a version of the Extreme Motorcycle High
Wire Aerial Thrill Show with a lady daredevil hanging from a trapeze below a la
the famous Flying Wallenda family! The
motorcyclist even turned sideways with the daredevil following suit. For this and their other acts, they made sure
to note, “Don’t try this at home!”
Next, a man in the group stacked up 10 chairs atop one another and stood
at the top displaying sensational balance!
Their final act of the day was a lady doing all types of scary balances
from a swing below an extremely high parallel bar. OK. That’s my description of this ‘You Have
to See it To Believe It” event! Visit
their web site, https://nervelessnocks.com/,
for some more accurate details of their incredible history and all they do!
We closed out the day with a walk to the extreme northeast section of
the fair site for the Whippoorwill Rodeo.
This was quite a thrill for me since the only other rodeo I had ever
seen was when I took my son to the Professional Bull Riders event at the St.
Charles Family Arena well over 15 years ago.
Prior to the event, they had a special ceremony that started with a Native or Indigenous American riding out in full headdress. That was a serious moment, but also brought to mind a t-shirt at one of the fair’s gift shops. It had labeled photos of Wolf Robe, Red Cloud, Geronimo, Chief Joseph and Sitting Bull under large words that read, “Homeland Security” and atop the words, “Fighting Terrorism Since 1492.”
Sure enough, the rodeo Indian was followed by a cowboy riding in. Moments later, there was a lengthy prayer followed by an encouraged sing-a-long of “The National Anthem.”
The actual radio’s narration was handled by a serious announcer and his comedic but corny sidekick. They were very descriptive in explaining the rules and scoring details while also poking fun at several of the male and female performers alike.
We loved the calf roping, bronco bull riding, barrel races, the overall fast action and even the
slapstick humor of the microphoned clown who roamed the infield. The rodeo itself and the entire 2019 Du Quoin
State Fair certainly took me back to earlier, more simple days—WAY back to when
I was a very young grade school child!
