Oh No He Didn't

 

Oh No He Didn’t

I was happy to be invited to attend the NC St Fair with my son and daughter-in-law and my 2-year-old granddaughter.  It was a beautiful fall day.  The sun was shining, and the fair atmosphere was as I remembered it.  Festivities and unusual foods were endless.  The air was filled with excitement and anticipation as only the St Fair can provide.  It’s an experience in itself to just walk around.  I never was an amusement park participant and don’t like to ride rides, but just the sights and sounds gave me joy.  Seeing the look on my granddaughter’s face was priceless.  It was colorful and magical.  She rode a few kiddie rides, but they tended to be short in duration.  When the ride stopped, she would cry because she wanted it to keep going.  She saw the animals and had a pony ride.  She sat atop a huge John Deere tractor and squealed with happiness.  I got roasted corn dripping with butter on a stick and enjoyed every bite of it.  My daughter-in-law got a Boston crème donut which my granddaughter devoured.  My son had a country ham biscuit.  The food offerings seemed infinite.  They were serving gator tails, Krispy Kreme cheeseburgers, deep-fried everything and the familiar funnel cakes and cotton candy, just to name a few.  The grist mill was running, and the free hushpuppies were delicious.  It was traditional for our family to get a free hushpuppy. 

My son wanted to continue his new tradition of getting his daughter’s portrait made by tintype processing.  The actual photo produced is taken with a vintage camera and developed on a piece of tin.  It is reminiscent of photos from the 1800’s.   They had her photo taken last year when she was only a year old while she was bawling.  This time, however, she sat like a pro and in the photo, she looked like a model.  Having accomplished the goal of getting the portrait, we walked the midway, where all the carnival games are located.  During that time, I mentioned that those carnival guys could never guess my age when I was younger, because I always looked younger than I was.  My son challenged me to test my theory.  He said he’d give me $5 to see me play the game.  I approached the guy with the microphone who had been calling out to the crowd for a victim.  I was wearing a baseball cap which I removed so he could see my gray hair.  He said, “you want me to guess your weight or your age?”   Of course, I said my age.  He took a tiny slip of paper and turned it toward the crowd while writing his guess.  It was hidden from me, and he asked me my age.  I said “65” and he said, “get a prize”.   I was ecstatic because I had beaten the game once again.  The joke, however, was on me!  My son began to belly laugh and laugh and revealed that the guy had written down “69”.  What?!  I was devastated.  How dare he!  My son proceeded to get a plastic trumpet for my granddaughter as a prize.  Little did he know that it actually made noise.  I taught her how to blow it, and he said, “that toy is going to Gigi’s house” to which I replied, “No way, you paid $5 for it, and you keep it!”  Jokes on him?  I don’t think so, I was mortified to know that I was now being guessed older than I really am.  “Oh no he didn’t” kept running through my mind.  The St Fair will never be the same!

Tammy Harvey 10/28/2025