As a kid, planning for a few precious days at the fair was a big deal; Rimkus and his best friend would prepare a detailed budget that would include certain requirements: a foot-long hot dog, X number of games in the arcade (this was pre-Xbox/computer games), and flimsily Carney-constructed rides in the Midway. And of course the entrance fee (more on that in a moment). In early 1970s dollars that was $12 total. Yes, inflation is a bitch! So lawn-mowing, window washing etc would commence in earnest early in the summer to be sure adequate funds were available by the Fair’s start in the last week of August. The elder Rimkus parents could usually be counted on for a fiver – or maybe $10 extra IF the young Rimkus had been relatively well-behaved throughout the summer.
The Fair itself is an overwhelming onslaught of crowds, sound, heat and smells (of sweat, farm animals, and just about anything you could possibly deep fry and put on a stick).
I’ll leave it to Fair boosters and memorialists to tell about all the things peculiar and drawing to millions of Midwesterners annually. And there’s a lot of that available (its called “Google”: give it a shot).
(Pioneer Press: Ben Garvin)
Rimkus himself was too much the nerd or coward to partake of the mysterious siren-song of teen temptations on display after the sun went down on those sultry summer evenings; the rock, the roll, wafts of strange substances in the air and girls (or to Rimkus at the time, WOMEN!) in tanks and the holy Halter-Top.
I do believe that the older Brothers-of-Rimkus partook of all these wonders, much to the chagrin of the Elder Rimkuses. And the State Fair Police! Yes, the Fair has its own police force.
And now back to the entrance fare noted above: it was well known to the youth living in the vicinity of the fairgrounds that there were certain weaknesses in the perimeter security that could be breached with enough verve and avoid the exorbitant entrance fare. IF one could also avoid the Fair cops…
As Rimkus’s sister and (future) sister in-law found out one balmy fair evening, the latter is not so easily accomplished. Especially if, while scaling the ten foot tall chain link fence at the conveniently overhanging oak tree, the young but old enough to know better ladies are shrieking with laughter while trying to throw their purses over the Minnesota Berlin Wall to one another!
Rimkus will not forget the look on the Elder Father Rimkus’s face when receiving a call from the Fair Police Station office about having to come and fetch – and pay the entrance fare – of his daughter and (future) daughter-in-law who were now in custody for trespassing.
Ahh, memories. But I suspect that the Minnesota State Fair still holds that draw to persons of all ages; the thrill and mystery and endless possibility of youth…and farm machinery and prize-winning pigs and Fair Queens carved in butter (like I said: Google it).
If you should happen to be in Minnesota in the last two weeks of August, check it out. But pay the entrance fare.
Wikipedia’s Minnesota State Fair Page
After ‘Gatsby,’ Fitzgerald took us to the Minnesota State Fair
