"New" fair seen through a child's eyes

Resslin' Around, by Casey Ressler

As a fairgoer for years, I've come to expect certain things at the big event. But now, seeing the fair through a young child's eyes, I've seen a totally different experience.

My daughter, Madison, is going to be three in November, and this is the first fair that she's really into. She understands what the fair is, and how much fun it can be. After spending a couple of days there with a young child, you start to see the "real" fair.

Every single time we hit the fairgrounds, we have to stop by the agriculture pavilion -- a place I think I visited once in the last decade PM (pre-Madison). We stop by the pen of every single pig, because pigs are obviously cool, but we skip right past the llamas, because they happen to scare the bejesus out of her. I'll admit, their overbite scares me a bit too -- enough to make a dental appointment -- but after chasing after them on a friend's farm when I was a kid, I'm a little more confident around them, but not confident enough to make eye contact.

We visit the horsies before we have French fries -- that's right, boring old shoestring French fries. Nothing more and nothing less will do, even though the fair presents a plethora of dining opportunities. We follow the French fries up with a simple scoop of chocolate ice cream -- no special cones or toppings needed, just simple ice cream.

A visit to the midway makes her eyes light up, and her parents' eyes as well. We blew $25 at the ring toss because she could only hit the bottles once every seven or eight tosses, but it didn't matter because just getting to throw them excited her.

As we walk around the fair, I see other parents with children around the same age. You can tell they are seeing a new fair as well -- a better fair than they remembered before they had kids. Flash bulbs pop every time their children get on a kiddie ride, pet a goat or stare in amazement at a giant rutabaga.

That's the real magic of the Alaska State Fair.

Casey Ressler (valleylife@frontiersman.com) is the Valley Life editor and fair aficionado.