I was at DuQuoin this afternoon. Alongis has good tortellini. It is the beginning of the State Fair. We country folks like a good State Fair. The governor comes and lives on the fairgrounds in the Hayes Mansion. I saw Big Jim Thompson land in a helicopter on the Mansion grounds and get out with his daughter. I saw Little Jim Edgar driving a golf cart during one fair. For many years, it was MJ and my mission to get some barbecue sandwiches at the fair. The Pavilion has all manner of Blue Ribbon prizes. Some of them are showing a bit of wear by Labor Day. A lot of beer is drunk at the fair, and funnel cake is eaten. Often it is hot at the fair, but a promise of fall-like weather is in store. We midwesterners are outside people. We come from the ‘Good Earth’ as Pearl S. Buck told us. Hardscrabble and well-meaning. We do not like to hurt people. If someone says that they are too fat, we say that they are just right…

Bob Hope performed at the DuQuoin State Fair. Neva J thought that he was the funniest comedian. Red Skelton played the Fair also. Famous names of my childhood. They stayed at the St. Nicholas Hotel. Today’s DuQuoin residents know the Hotel as a great restaurant. It used to be where the Hollywood Stars stayed. Fernie worked there during the Fair and saw all of the elite. We get excited when we see famous people. After working in the coal mines, it is refreshing to rub elbows with fortunate sons.

DuQuoin streets were quiet. One unmarked police SUV with its police lights on. The governor was visiting DuQuoin today. It is the Fair Opening. He will shake hands and kiss babies. It has always been thus. Moms and Dads will tell their little kids that the governor is passing by. They will wonder who the governor is. The State Fair is pretty at night. Fairs are meant to be appreciated at night. They are a bit dingy during the day. Children and children at heart will sit in the Ferris Wheel toggling seat. The Ferris Wheel placed butterflies in my stomach. A good Carny will stop you on top. Then your seat partner will rock the toggling seat and laugh the laugh of the damned. After the Ferris Wheel, it is time for a Lemon Shake-Up.

Fairs are for forgetting, for a moment your cares and woes. Willie Nelson sang, ‘I’ll Fly Away,’ and I believed it. Especially after he followed the old hymn with, ‘Roll Me Up And Smoke Me When I Die.’ Teenage girls screamed with joy at Willie, and he smiled and waved to them. He had just turned 80. It is all about perspective.

The DuQuoin State Fair was a big deal to me growing up in Eldorado, Illinois. In those halcyon days, Neva J and I did not travel too far afield. Summers were destined for numerous trips to Pounds Hollow. Once, Neva J and I, along with cousin Brenda, went to a small Missouri town near Ft Leonard Wood so Brenda could bid her boyfriend, Danny, goodbye. We went to the theatre and saw Irma La Douce with Shirley Mclain. I have loved Shirley since that day. I had five dollars in my wallet, which was a Herculean sum of money for me to be carrying. I bought a Blackbeard Pirate model to glue and paint when I returned to Eldorado. So the Fair trip was the majestic close of summer. There were Freak shows in those days of not-so-politically correct speech. Chet and I saw the Headless Man. To this day, I believe that he really was Headless. They were Koochie Koochie Shows. These were not shows where someone tickled you to you laughed until you cried. An African American man came out of the curtain to regale us, who were young or young at heart, with what we would see on the inside if we were of age. I knew I was not in Eldorado anymore.

I saw a man turn into a gorilla still wearing the man’s fedora and smoking a cigar.

Earl could be talked into driving Neva J and me to the State Fair on Labor Day because he did not have to work. By then, the Carnys were in shutdown mode, thinking of the next gig. The Fair was supposed to close at nine. At dusk, the traveling band of rides and shows began tearing down the attractions. It was an hour ride back home full of Malones Taffy and funnel cake and dreams of the next Fair…