I can smell it

It all started around noon last Wednesday; that certain aroma that means the beginning of Fall here; peanuts, popcorn, cotton candy, Kielbasa with peppers and onions and anything bad for you that can be made worse by frying. The State Fair is here at last.

My first experience with a state fair happened in 1963 when a bunch of us on my dorm floor in the old “H” building of the Honeycombs made our way down to the fairgrounds to check it all out. As a kid in Jacksonville my family had gone to the circus a couple of times but this was my first experience with a state or county fair. I really didn’t know what to expect.

I was overwhelmed with the food booths and wanted to try everything. I quickly discovered that Fisk Fries and cotton candy don’t really mix well. Add a foot long hot dog to that and a real gastronomical disaster is in the making. A couple of turns on the rides came close to ending the night early. After spending some time in the grandstands watching the rock and roll band playing, we were ready to explore the darker west end of the fairgrounds.

That is where the houses of horror and the “hootchie cootchie” shows were. The crowds thinned out the further we went and there were no longer children in the crowd. It was more groups of young men and dating couples taking the opportunity for that kiss in the Tunnel of Love or that tight hug as the gorilla jumped out of the cage and everyone ran screaming out of the tent and laughing once they were “out of danger.” In case you never had the experience, watch the James Bond Movie “Diamonds are Forever.” The scene where Jill St. John eludes the FBI agents is straight out of the old State Fair playbook.

I must have lived a really sheltered life before that fair, because that was the first time I ever saw a burlesque dancer in real life. Of course, I saw them in movies before but never face to face like that. Sure enough, my buddies and I rounded a corner to hear the sound of the Coasters 1961 song “Little Egypt (Ying Yang).” There was no ruby on her tummy or a diamond big as Texas on her toe, and no picture of a cowboy tattooed on her spine Saying Phoenix, Arizona, nineteen forty-nine. But she did the “hootchie cootchie” just like in the song. I never saw more that night than one would see on a beach today. But it was quite an experience in my young life.

In the late ‘60s my fair-going experience changed from being part of the crowd to working there. I got to know a lot of carnies while doing live radio and televisions broadcasts from the fair. They certainly had a different outlook on life. Sure, there were a few of them who disrespected the fair-going customer as “marks,” but the vast majority viewed us locals as their customers out looking for a good time. During that period which lasted until 1991, I was broadcasting out at the fair at least once or twice each year.

Between 1997 and 1999 I was co-captain of the State of South Carolina Technology booth at the rear of the Cantey Building. During those years I was out at the fair all 12 days, plus the three days it took to set up the displays before opening day and the Monday after to disassemble the technology and carry all the equipment back to the various State Agencies that participated in the activity. Those years, I became one with the State Fair. I finally had a chance to sample every fair food offering from elephant ear to fried Snickers. Lordy, I couldn’t do that today. By time the 2000 State Fair arrived, I had left State Government and was running a project in a Fortune 100 company out of Seattle Washington and Ann Arbor Michigan. I must admit that I was a little homesick when I saw the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines the following August during my traveling years.

It wasn’t until last year that I set foot on the fairgrounds during the fair again. This time in yet a different role; I was asked by AARP South Carolina to be the DJ for their Dance Party on Senior Day. As I drove through the Number 1 Gate and parked behind the Rosewoods building, my nose was assailed by the aroma of the State Fair. This time the eau du cattle barn was a little more pronounced because the parking space was behind the scenes between the building and the cattle exercise areas. It is said that the sense of smell is the one that evokes memory the most. It sure worked for me. I could see in my mind’s eye all those things I had seen over the years; my college hall mates, my broadcast co-workers, and all the folks who worked tirelessly to bring technology to the people in the SCINET booth in the Cantey Building a few dozen yards from where I was 16 years before.

This Wednesday, thanks to AARP, I’ll be loading my speakers, stands, amplifiers and Oldies laden computer into my car, and doing it all over again. As it did last year, I’m sure it will feel like the old days of doing the Nightbeat Show on WCOS Radio out at Doug Broome’s Drive In Restaurant. “Taking names and kicking wax” I call it. That is taking requests and playing records. By the way, ZZ Top is playing in the grand stand that evening. I wonder if I’ll see Dusty Hill, Billy Gibbons or Frank Beard, they would fit right in with the crowd! Life comes full circle. Oh MY!