September seems to be the month for fairs all across the nation. For me when I was growing up in East Tennessee, the only one in the world was the Tennessee Valley Agricultural and Industrial Fair, better known as the TVA&I Fair, or, even simpler, The Fair.
The fair was held at Chilhowee Park in Knoxville. The fairgrounds were adjacent to the then rather small (now much larger and better) Knoxville Zoo, where the main attraction was Old Diamond, the elephant that was incarcerated there. He has long since passed, but the zoo has grown exponentially.
The fair held three or four main interests for my family. The first was the agricultural displays of crops and animals. Daddy was especially interested in it, having grown up on a farm and partnering with his father on their dairy farm. Although I hated the odors that emanated from that part of the fair, I did enjoy seeing the various animals, including the Jersey cows (the breed my grandfather raised), large bulls, humungous sows, sheep, rabbits, and other miscellaneous and sometimes exotic farm critters.
A side attraction for us was the snake pit, which included large numbers of poisonous varieties. Although I hate snakes, I enjoyed viewing the ones at the fair because they were well contained and therefore harmless.
I recall one funny incident that occurred beside the snake pit, which was decorated from knee height downward with pine and cedar branches to hide the boards that separated the pit vipers in the pit from the pit viper viewers on the outside. They gave one the feeling of being "in the wild." Most of the snakes had bunched themselves against the boards and so were hard to see. A man beside us grabbed a branch from the front decorations, hoping to stick it through the chicken wire above the boards and push some of the snakes out into view. When he did so, an attached branch ran up his pants leg. We'd never seen anyone jump so quickly or turn so pale!
After viewing the agricultural exhibits, we'd move along the roadway beside the lake toward the Jacobs Building. On the way, we'd pass a little trailer from which our congressman, John Duncan Sr. gave away water that was so cold it gave me a headache. For penny pinchers like Daddy, that free water was a godsend in a hot desert where thirst badgered everyone but the prices for soft drinks were beyond his miserly willingness to pay. Duncan's son, Jimmy Duncan, was a judge in Knoxville at the time, but he later won his father's seat and served in that position for a long time. And he maintained his dad's tradition of giving out free water at the fair.
The Jacobs Building was a large, open-ceilinged, multistoried building where various businesses had booths displaying their products or services. I enjoyed strolling through those, gathering all sorts of "freebies," from candy to product samples to various brochures. I'd always come home with a pocketful of literature. I especially liked the brochures that the military service branches distributed in their recruiting efforts.
From there, we headed to the Kerr Building, where the home-related exhibits were displayed, Before we got there, however, we'd stop at the U.S. Army Recondo (reconnaissance commando) tower. There, specially trained soldiers demonstrated their martial arts and rappelling skills. Their demonstrations probably did more to garner eager enlistments during the Vietnam War era than did all the brochures the Army distributed during the entire length of the fair. There, one of our pastor's sons entered a contest to climb a greased pole. Several contestants tried and failed, but in the process they wore off much of the grease. When our friend attempted it, he had an easier time of it and won, earning $10 for his efforts. (Mother recorded that incident in her diary, of which I've written recently.)
At the Kerr Building, the handiwork of the winners of various "home-centered activities" and domestic skills contests were displayed. In one section were rows and rows of pies, cakes, and other homemade desserts. In another section was a variety of canned goods. I recall many of the winners had painstakingly and meticulously stacked green beans or okra or whatever other vegetables in Mason jars. It must have taken them hours to do that.
In yet another section were quilts, blankets, and crocheted or knitted items. Other products entered in the various contests included handmade birdhouses, models of log cabins, and other woodworking products. All the sections featured the winners with their first-, second-, third-place, and commendable ribbons proudly displayed on them.
Always intriguing to me was the Midway, where all the rides were located. To get to it, one had to walk through a tunnel under four-lane Magnolia Avenue. Everything there seemed to be spinning, leaping, or diving (and sometimes doing all three) amid bright, flashing lights and loud music. I don't recall riding very many of the amusements (they cost money!), but I definitely remember the taste of the cotton candy we often bought there. Mostly, though, we just walked through the Midway, killing time until the nightly fireworks at 10 p.m.
We went to the lakeside before 10 p.m., thereby beating the crowds and getting a good place to watch the fireworks. At 10 o'clock sharp, the fireworks began. There were not only a lot of aerial shots but also numerous ground displays. I've seen many other much bigger fireworks displays since then, but none beats those I saw at the fair through a youngster's eyes. On the nights when we didn't go to the fair, we could sit in our yard in Halls and see the flashes of light from the exploding aerial fireworks beyond the ridges on the horizon and a few seconds later hear the boom.
Those visits to the fair as a kid are still vivid in my memory. I can still smell the various odors of that place, both good and bad, and hear the cacophony of sounds, from the mooing of cows, grunting of pigs, and cackling of hens to the screams of fear and delight in the Midway to the oohs and aahs of spectators at the fireworks display.
After I had my own family, we, too, went to the fair every year but with a different purpose and motivation. Our four daughters all entered various domestic skills contests--sewing, canning, baking, etc. They worked hard on their projects, and each of them won several ribbons for their efforts. (One daughter alone won ten first-place ribbons and nine second-places ribbons, but the other three won their share as well.) The icing on the cake, so to speak, was the fact that they also won money for their efforts. We also gained free entry to the fair when we delivered their entries to the Kerr Building. Our daughters, too, remember those times and, lest we forget, frequently remind us of them about this time of year: the days of the TVA&I Fair.
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