Adventures of the Shelby County Fair

So it was senior night at the County fair last night so Brooks, Mollie and me took Grandma to check on Brooks’ pie. It was so funny because Grandma just kept asking about the pie. “Where’s the pie?”
Once we walked into the Shelby County Exhibition Hall where it was there was so much going on us first timers where a little overwhelmed by all the showings and booths and gospel, let alone the rides and games and kids all hepped up on cotton candy running around outside. Needless to say we got a little distracted until Grandma said, “I’m gonna ask somebody where the pies are,” and swatted her hand like she meant it.
I asked somebody and she led us to the Baked Goods booth and sure enough Brooks won 2nd place with Grandma’s Ice Box Pie. It was a heroic moment for the Suttle family. Grandma was simply overjoyed, it was fantastic.
So from there we went and got hot dogs and hamburgers and sweet tea and then sat down to listen to an all mean’s singing group. There were four men singing, a piano player and a bassist. They sang old timey gospel numbers and talked slow and made simple humor in their banter and it was great. They were having a grand old time. Grandma leans over and says, “They look like they’re having a good time, don’t they?”
“Sure do Grandma.”
From there we went outside and hit up the games. I won the water gun race game and got a ducky and Brooks used the hammer to hit the mallet and try to hit the bell and won a tiger for Mollie, but none of these compared to the victory that was yet to come.
The one game I always remember from my Carver Elementary fair Days was the booth with ping-pong balls and jars and you have to throw the ping-pong ball in the jar and if you do you get a goldfish. Clear as day I can see myself playing on the Carver blacktop. Of course that’s the one I went to. It was 17 shots for 2 dollars so I loaded up, tossed them all, didn’t get a single one.
“17 more please,” without thinking twice.
I had about five balls left when Grandma and Brooks and Mollie came up and found me so I said, “Here Grandma, toss it like this.”
“What now?” she said, hesitant but willing, so I showed her and she got it and she tossed it. She missed too so I gave her another one and I shot one and then we where out. We were just about to call it a night when I pulled out four more dollars and said, “Could you load us both us please?”
So Grandma and I went to town, Brooks and Mollie cheering on the sideline, and wouldn’t you know, I didn’t make a single one. Three rounds of 17 balls and I didn’t make a single one. But you know who did make one? Grandma! We were going crazy and she wasn’t quite sure what she’d done or if she’d won or anything, she just kept tossing her ping-pong balls. and that my friends, was the only thing that could have been comparable to Brooks’ red ribbon in the Shelby County Fair Pie contest.
(We also learned later on that the only one who beat Brooks was the wife of the guy the building we were standing in was named after.”