Through My Eyes: St. Joe County 4-H Fair

Summer isn't complete unless you attend the annual 4-H Fairs. Last week we saw and met Taylor Hicks at Elkhart's fair. This week it was St. Joe's fair. The sights and sounds are the best as the carnival rides, food stands, and animals fill the senses with the best of what summer offers.

We took in the grandstand show which was absolutely fantastic. A tribute band called American English reproduced the Beatles with an eerie realism that if you closed your eyes, they were there and you were back in the 60's. I was a very devoted Beatle Fan. I was such a fan that after I graduated high school, I worked three jobs to earn enough to travel to England, St. Johns Wood to be exact and I met Sir Paul McCartney and his wife, Linda, and their daughter, Mary along with their romping dogs at his home. Sounds outlandish, but I promise you, the experience happened and I was very blessed to be able to tell someone I admired growing up how much they meant to me. My teen years were plagued with a lot of family problems and Paul and his music were my escape, my solitude, and my safe place. Being able to share my art with him and to tell him meant a lot to me, especially when everyone doubted me even getting near him. Linda was gracious and made a special trip back out of the house to tell me to have a great holiday. Sitting there watching my daughter and grandson enjoy the music of my youth was great as they loved it as much as I did.

You have to know that with anything I do...there has to be an "event". This was no exception. Intermission brought an Elvis impersonator to the stage. There truly is only one Elvis impersonator that actually has ever captured Elvis with reverence and dead on accuracy. Doug Church has, does, and always will be the only one that Elvis himself would have been proud of. So, this impersonator jumps from the stage and proceeds to "shmooze" the ladies and he went up to one and proceeded to plop down on her lap....unfortunately, fair chairs are rather, um, cheap and the woman went crashing down..... He laughed about it until he saw the woman running down the isle to leave due to humiliation, tears, and so "Elvis" goes running down the isle after her....talking her into coming back not to her seat as hers is flatter than a pancake. Then he proceeded to smooch her all over her face. Meantime, a lady behind us is yelling "suspicious eyes" as her song request. The title is Suspicious Minds and we all around her could hardly hold it in. I just didn't have the heart to correct her but each time she yelled it, I seriously thought my sides were going to split.

After watching more of the American English, we left to let Dawson ride the rides and he had a blast as rides were one ticket each so he tackled four alone and then one with his mom. We bought a police memorial book for my son, Jon, on the way out to help support their quest to put our fallen policemen's names on a national memorial. Two of the policemen were Jon's friends, so I am sure he will love the tribute to his friends. It was a great night. Family, laughter, and great food, music, and old fashioned fun.