The County Fair

It’s a scorching hot day in Pascagoula Mississippi and this weekend is the Jackson County Fair. As a tradition, everyone from around town will be there enjoying it all weekend long. I had promised my daughter we would go together when she saw the first advertisement weeks ago on a billboard off the highway and she has asked every day since then. Normally I would avoid it but she makes it incredibly hard to say no to her. Don’t get me wrong, I love a powdered funnel cake and fair lemonade as much as anybody but tradition or not, I still don’t find myself jumping to go.

It was a short drive but on the way she talks excitedly about all the things she is going to see and do. She is mostly excited for the ferris wheel and the fireworks display. She has never been to the county fair so I start to get just as excited to see her reactions to everything. There is no concern with her at all as to what may or may not be there but there is definitely one thing on my mind. We finally pull in, I pay the $5 to park and we make our way onto the fairgrounds. 

As I walk through the crowd holding my daughter's hand, I glance around at all the chaos. Teenagers smacking each other with light sabers, a very determined game booth worker shouting anything he can to get you to spend $10, only to win a prize that's worth one dollar and a father buying his daughter the jumbo bag of cotton candy; Everything you imagine you'd see at the county fair. Suddenly I feel my daughter's hand grip mine a little tighter and I notice the reason behind it nearly seconds later. A little boy walks by with a huge smile on his face... holding a balloon animal. Shortly after, we are consumed by a colorful crowd of kids standing in awe, each child holding something made of balloons. One kid had a balloon hat, a few had balloon swords and most of the others had some type of balloon animal. In the center of the crowd is my daughter's biggest fear; a clown. A red haired, red nosed, checkered pants wearing clown. Her face turned into my leg and the hand that wasn’t gripping mine immediately went to the side of her face as she tried her best to hide from him. I honestly don’t know what created this fear of hers but she has been scared of them since she was a baby. Little does she know though, one of my biggest fears is clowns as well, but I know exactly what caused mine. My fear of clowns dates back to 1994 when a not so funny clown embarrassed me in front of a big group of kids at a friend’s birthday party. I wanted a cute balloon animal like all the other kids and instead he made me a bumble bee and stuck the stinger right up my nose. Everyone all got a laugh out of it, all I got out of it was a face as red as a tomato and a new found fear. I don’t know why I got so embarrassed, but I did and I never went back to another fair again for the simple reason that I knew a clown would most likely be there and I never wanted to experience that again. I didn't find them funny then and I am almost sure I wouldn’t find one funny now so I just steer clear of them as best as I can. Today was different. I have a daughter now and it's my job to show her how to face her fears. With a clammy hand and a racing heart, I shifted through the cluster of kids and came face to face with Ronald McDonald. Well, not really Ronald McDonald, but you know what I mean. The crowd of kids had dispersed, leaving no room to hide as I second guessed my decision to confront him completely. I wanted to turn around and run but I didn’t. Instead, I stared him down and I realized he wasn't so scary after all. The southern heat had started melting the red and white paint right off his face, and I don't know if he broke character or he just didn't try, or I guess perhaps because I am 32 now, but he spoke to me like we weren't at a fair and he wasn't dressed in oversized shoes and a big red nose. I felt my heart rate return back to a normal rhythm and then my daughter’s hand dropped from mine. She must have sensed the calmness in me and she too realized there was nothing to fear. It was obvious neither one of us were terrified anymore and the realization of that made me laugh. The clown thought I was laughing at him and I felt too bad to correct him because it was clear he needed the confidence boost. After that, he ended up making my daughter a balloon animal that looked so cool, I am pretty sure it made some of the other kids jealous. He also told her some pretty funny jokes, juggled and danced around, tripping over his big floppy shoes which made her giggle louder than I've ever heard her giggle before. She clapped and smiled and loved every second of it and he quickly became her favorite part of going to the county fair. Much to my surprise, the ferris wheel could never measure up to the clown and his grand performance. It was one of the best days we ever had and I never thought that our best day would involve a clown, something we were both scared to death of. I walked away from that experience knowing two things for sure; I wasn't afraid of clowns anymore and facing your fears may be terrifying, but it works.