Monday, September 24, 2012

The Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very Ugly

You might not expect that we'd find all three - the good, the bad, and the ugly - at the County Fair, but that was the case a couple of weekends ago when the four of us visited the first annual Brazos County Fair.

The "good" included a rodeo showcase (we've really come to love rodeos, or as Hallie refers to them, "radios"), a monkey wearing a dress and bloomers, and a petting zoo.
I've yet to figure out how to take rodeo pictures.
In order to see eye-to-eye with this horse
I had to stand on a 4-foot-high cement wall.
My dress-wearing monkey friend stole my
sunglasses and messed up my hair.  A small price to pay
to be able to say that I held a monkey though.
She liked Tom better than she liked me.
Hallie is apparently some kind of goat whisperer.  She wasn't at all
afraid of the animals, even though almost every single one of them
was bigger than she was and they all came at her at once.  
Even when she had no food, the animals licked the
palms of her hands.  (Don't worry - we sanitized her
entire body when we left the petting zoo.)
This miniature donkey was her favorite.  I can't help but notice
how Hallie's friend, who we ran into at the fair,
is holding her hand while she feeds her donkey.  Sweet.
As she fed the animals (or they licked her hands) she
whispered to them things like, "I love you so much,
little donkey. You're such a pretty donkey.
You're such a special donkey."
I think that donkey would have let Hallie ride him if she'd wanted to.
Seriously, they're best friends now.
"Do you know how much I love you?  To the moon and back, little donkey."
This petting zoo also had deer, which was incredible for Tom and me,
as we'd never been so close to so many deer at one time.  They were gorgeous.
The "bad" included the rides, which were dirty and ridiculously expensive for the length of the time they lasted (especially considering we had to pay to get into the fair in the first place), and the pig races.  We were really excited when we heard pigs would be racing at the fair, but the "races" were more like 11 seconds of pig-related chaos.
Buying tickets on his own.
Over so soon?
A quick, $4 train ride.
Getting ready to "race".
Hmm.
The "ugly" was particularly so.  While sitting in the stands at the rodeo, we heard the announcer - who was a bit rougher around the edges (read: cruder) than any rodeo announcer we've been in the presence of thus far - make a mildly derogatory comment.  Both Tom and I took note, but decided to let it go.  A few minutes later the announcer made a comment so offensive that neither Tom nor I could actually believe the words had come out of his mouth.  But they did, in front of hundreds of spectators, and while very few others besides us seemed to take note, Tom and I looked at each other and immediately agreed that it was time for us to leave.

I'm grateful that Will and Hallie weren't paying any attention to that filth-spouting announcer, but when I think about all of the people who were paying attention - children and adults alike - I feel sick to my stomach.  If we choose to visit the second annual Brazos County Fair next September, we'll head straight to the petting zoo and skip the lesson in hatred and intolerance all together.  

1 comment:

  1. Sadly, crude commentators can be the norm around here :(

    ReplyDelete