Tori’s Writing Hole

We took Julia to the Big E - the Eastern States Exposition - yesterday. Think county fair on steroids. It’s held in West Springfield, MA, about 1.5 hours from our house. We’d been there once before, but I was pregnant with Julia and in the throws of “all-day” sickness, so the entire time seems clouded by nausea. This time, I wasn’t sick to my stomach, but still vow not to return.

The idea was to show Julia the animals, cows, sheep, etc - and maybe do a few other fair-like activities. Instead, we were moshed into buildings filled with people wearing tube tops and stained shirts from their 80s rock concert trips, smacked up against each other for the opportunity to buy overpriced beer and craft show rejects. The few animals in the place were tired, stuck in a building that smelled like the bathroom ABOVE the smell of cow poo.

Not that the entire thing wasn’t fun - there were some instances of interest, and Julia behaved like an absolute angel. She got everyone in the place to smile at her, and melted hearts near and far. But besides that, I think I may have outgrown fairs. I felt all like, snobbish, wondering why people didn’t dress up more to attend an event that includes eating fried foods, walking through clouds of cigarette smoke and kicking into horse apples. I think we’re going to have to stick to either smaller, local county fairs or just take Julia back to the zoo.

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