The State Fair Has Been Reformed

Let's start this by saying I don't think I've actually even been to the Wisconsin State Fair in seven years. The last summer I went, I worked eight hours in the cream puff tent, decided it was a disgusting sticky mess and promptly quit. As mean as it sounds, I have always had this prejudice against the fair thinking that it's full of trashy, drunk biker people stumbling through the Midway looking to get in a brawl or at least ride The Zipper. My good friend Alicia from grad school has just moved back home to Milwaukee. She loves the fair, so I thought it would be good to give it another try with a true fan. Before she even moved back we made the plan to hit the fair on the first day and have the "full" fair experience.

Lately I've been geeked about farm animals and home grown produce, so I was feeling very excited to see all of it. We arrived in the morning with our two cans of food for Milwaukee's Hunger Task Force and got in for $2 each, which I thought was a pretty swell deal. It was $1 ride day in the Midway, also an excellent deal. We spent about five hours total at The Fair and tried just about everything we could.

We saw the horses, cows, sheep, goats, chickens, ducks and bunnies. The piggy place was closed unfortunately, must have been piggy prep time or something. We saw the bread, pies, cookies, quilting, embroidery, vegetables, vegetable basket arrangements, flowers, flower arrangements and all kinds of artifacts from State Fair's past. We visited the Expo building to peruse all the Sham-Wow-type products (sham is an appropriate name, isn't it?). We sat for a long while in a booth with swingy porch chairs and spun around in circles 'til we giggled. We visited the Midway where we rode the Giant Slide, Ferris Wheel and Tilt-A-Whirl. We ate fair food, including a giant pickle, fresh fried cheese curds and chive fries (not a very good vegan day at all, but I just haaaaaad too). Alicia even picked up a cream puff tote to go.

Overall, my favorite part was seeing all of the animals and watching their handlers groom them. It was teen showcase day and there were lots of young kids taking great pride in getting their animals ready. I saw several pairs of handlers blow drying and brushing their cows' fluffed up patch of hair along the spine or spraying them with some kind of bovine hairspray. Two girls were feeding their cows a special mix of fattening-up food for the day of the show. They told me it was pureed beets and molasses, which the cows love! We also got to meet several county Dairy Queens (I didn't know the namesake of the ice cream shop actually existed, call me a city kid through and through). The Brodhead County Dairy Queen explained how a cow's stomaches work on a real-life model that had been preserved by the UW-Madison Veterinary School.

Overall, the fair has been truly reformed for me! I loved it and it was one of the best summer days I've had yet this year. I'm excited to go back next year and to bring little kiddies in the future. Long live Wisconsin agriculture!