The Unofficial Death Of Summer At The Fair

Went to the State Fair one final time tonight. There were crowds, but it still felt a lot less crowded than it did when I went the night before, let alone when I went the first night. People trying to do the grown-up thing and taking it easy the night before The First Day Of School, is my guess.

There was a feeling of quiet, even dormancy, in the air at the Fair. Maybe that shouldn't surprise me. Not only are people preparing for tomorrow, Labor Day hours are shorter by an hour or two. Despite the area around the Midway being pretty hopping by the time I left at just before 10:30 (the Midway closed at 11 tonight), and even though I could hear Maroon 5 and Train (and their loud, mostly female fans) emanating from the Grandstand, there was a stillness permeating the atmosphere.

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It was sad walking around the fairgrounds when people were closing up shop. One of them closed up shop for good. The one thing I wanted to do today was eat at the Epiphany Diner. It's run by this church up in Coon Rapids, which I didn't know until I sat down and looked at one of their stand-up ads. They might run the cemetery where my junior prom date is buried in. Kind of hits home for me. Anyway, after 46 years they have decided that it they can no longer take the annual financial loss the diner takes, so they're packing it in.

There was a story done on the Epiphany Diner last week. I didn't know there were dozens of these sit-down restaurants at the Minnesota State Fair way back when. Times have changed; where families once looked forward to sitting down and eating during The Great Minnesota Get-Together, they now think that is anachronistic, even a waste of time. People-watching is one of the greatest attractions at the Fair, and there's food that you can take along as you walk around. Can't do that if you're sitting down, and that's why what once were dozens has now, with the death of the Epiphany, dwindled to just two. I hope they both hang on.

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I was debating about whether or not to get Sweet Martha's Cookies and then just sit at the all-you-can-drink milk barn tonight. I did not buy cookies this year -- no! -- for four reasons:

1. I was told that the barn was closing by 9 (less than an hour after I had asked) and possibly earlier because they were running out of milk (they ran out of chocolate when I asked), and I wanted to walk around;
2. Epiphany's dinner set me back $11.50. I gave myself a $20 limit and I had my heart set on a bucket -- which costs $15;
3. I wanted to try something that was new this year and recommended, and I finally found this Egyptian street food called ... um ... harushka? I bought that instead;
4. And I had this plan where all the cookies I couldn't eat by the all-you-can-drink milk barn I would eat with the milk I had at home. But there is so little that I think I can use that with my cereal instead.

So the last thing I bought was root beer. It's only a buck! Finally, some cheap food at the Fair!!

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Remember when I said that I was kind of looking forward to the end of summer? Seeing the fireworks go off -- The Unofficial End To The State Fair's Day -- made me reconsider. Starting tomorrow, the freedom we felt is over. Now we have schedules, deadlines, invisible hands pushing us forward, towards activities and responsibilities and obligations we may or may not want. When summer rolls around next year, we will be markedly different. And we may not like it.

And I may not like it. No -- I know I will not like it. With all the shit that's going on now, what with the death of the store, the season changing does not change the predicament I'm in, nor does it unbend the curve the family's headed to now. This summer going to this fall is going from the frying pan and into the fire.