If your mind is too open, your brain will fall out. Warning: Names, identities, descriptions, and pictures have been changed and/or used to protect the innocent as well as the guilty. PollyPeoria should not be used or quoted as a source for your senior college thesis.

Monday, July 18

IMHO: The HOI fair is NASTY

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Someone has to say this plainly. The HOI Fair is gross. Yes, it has its good parts: Bill's Lemonade Shake-ups, 4-H displays, agriculture and animal competitions. Lets be honest. Most of us don't go for the educational features. Few would be surprised to find some year soon that such exhibitions aren't offered anymore. Most of us go because something new is in town. We envision a temporary miniature Disney World waiting to wow and entertain. We go for the corn dogs and the rides.

Expect to pay Disney prices. However, unlike Disney, the grounds won't be clean. They say that the rides are inspected, but they sure haven't been washed. Did anyone see the inflatable "Titanic" slide? If you let your kid on it, I recommend de-lousing and testing for disease. I bit my nails as my excited young niece took a seat on the tower ride. Is it wise to let an innocent child ride this thing when the operator has mossy teeth (literally) and a prison tattoo? I could have easily spent the same amount of money at Six Flags as I did at the Fair and not have had to endure near the same filth or seedy people. Six Flags employs engineers and the inspectors always know where to find the rides.

What rock did some of these employees/operators crawl from under? Some of the clientele was a bit freaky too. I feared that if I let go of my niece's hand, the next time I would see her would be on the side of a milk carton. Advice to those who wish to show off their belly rings/tattoos: If you can pinch more than an inch (or five) DON'T DO IT. Such ornamentation is designed for the very young and taut. Those who don't qualify (myself included) should be banned by law from such displays. Yeah, well your first amendment right to free speech doesn't trump my right to not be blinded for life, Buddy.

There was some whining/reporting regarding low attendance this year. They tried to blame it on the heat, but it's always hot in July. Moreover, nights are quite tolerable. Nights are when the real freaks attend and I bet few parents are willing to subject their young to such an environment. My guess is that Peoria has caught on to the fact that the cost of attending the fair far exceeds its value. To all the carneys out there: Get a clue, get out the Formula 409, or go out of business.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree: the fair sucks. It always has. Scum-buckets run the rides: they're overpriced and dirty... everything is overpriced, and the Peoria area just doesn't have the farmers and livestock folks like in the 50s to make it into what it used to be.

Pull the plug and put it out of its misery.

Anonymous said...

Oh shoot, I just loves the fair. All them fat girls with tube tops on, all spruced up, smellin' so purty, and wearin' them stockings with the seams in 'em, and them stilletoo heels, and... and... oh, wait... I'm thinkin' of my last trip down to Morton Square...

Never mind.

JasonS said...

I'd go just about anywhere for Fair food. Corn dogs. Funnel cakes. Oooohhhhh.

But I won't go there. I won't pay that. I won't...submit myself to that.

Instead, I'll take a Chief's game. Great dogs. Or one of the little town fairs that spurt up all over the region every weekend. My band plays those things all the time (heading to Decatur this weekend). They're clean, they're fun, and (thanks to the corn dogs) they're filling!

pollypeoria said...

Where in Decatur is your band playing and do you think there will be deep fried twinkies?!

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