The Fair

Growing up, the county fair was always the third week of September. Midwestern weather in the early Fall at that time was typical Fall. Comfortable outside, but a bit cooler. Since it happened during the school year, the Fair only operated during the week in the evenings.

There was always a dunking machine at the Fair. The girls that sat in them had to be cold. Evening temperatures were easily in the 50s, but these girls sat there the entire time and took all the dunkings that came to them. These girls were always kind of quiet. They didn't interact with the crowd very much. The person taking the money or handing out balls were the ones drawing the crowd in.

I don't know who they were. I heard later that they were sometimes cheerleaders, but I don't know from where. I just knew they were older and kind of cute. (Really cute when they were wet). They never had a very big crowd around the tank. There was so much to do at the fair, it wasn't the main source of entertainment (well, for most people).... not like the town carnivals where the dunking machine was the only interesting thing going on.

At the fair, a girl would sit on the seat and wait until someone noticed and decided to throw. Most people would miss and I would have to wait a long time to see the girl get dunked. Every once in a while a good thrower would knock her in twice, but dunks were hard to come by. The girl would then sit back up on the seat, dripping wet, and wait for a while until another thrower came by. I always remember their wet legs in the night air looking so soft and smooth. They wouldn't move much. I could tell they were cold. I remembered some sitting up there, with their hands folded and teeth chattering.

This one time, I remember a crowd watching a guy in the tank. He got dunked and then switched with another guy. They both wore white t-shirts and black sweat pants. After the second guy went in a couple times, he switched out with a blonde woman wearing the same thing. The woman climbed up the side of the tank and yelled, "OK, I know you want a girl up here." Yep. We did.

The woman had easy curly blonde hair that was a little longer than shoulder length. She wasn't as girly as most girls I had seen in the sense that she wasn't, "please have mercy on sweet, cute little me." No, she was more brazen. She was actually ASKING people to throw balls and try and dunk her. She would call out individual people and lightly make fun of them until they threw.

A BIG crowd gathered around the tank. Her taunts drew people in. The crowd was reacting to every throw. They wanted her to get wet. Finally someone hit the target and she dropped through the night air into the chilly water. The crowd burst into cheers and applause. She climbed back up, soaking wet and kept running her mouth. The water streamed from her pants. She got dunked several more times. I could tell she was getting cold because she got more quiet.

All and all, it was always a good time. The dunking machine went away for a few years, until our school's majorettes decided to revive it and run it one year.... but that is a story in itself for another time.