"The Pied Piper", State Fair, 1974
The 2015 State Fair is on and will be thru Sunday at midnight.
We used to always go.
In 1974 Donna was called to Amarillo due to an illness and little Brian,
age 10, and I went together, late one afternoon. He, being a little boy,
wanted to ride the cars and horses and we did it! I watched.
Alas, it was the second week of September, and as
the weather is wont to do here, a big awful norther (I know, it was JUST
September) hit about 6 p.m. with high winds! Suddenly it was cloudy,
cold, and a bit drizzly!
Luckily we had our light jackets.
We went ahead and visited Tom Bolack's awesome GARDEN PRODUCE,
the stock buildings where the cowboys who slept by their calves/sheep were
getting cots up early....and though the "midway" seemed to be thriving, the rest
of the fair began to shut down and empty.
Around seven-thirty, my little son (a notorious coffee-drinker "in his own right,")
sez: "Dad let's find a cuppa coffee somewhere!") Places were closing up
but the famous CHUCK WAGON, run by the LDS church was still open and
two or three sat at their counter on the old-fashioned stools.
We went in and each had a cup of steaming coffee and they scraped their
chili pot for two bowls of their marvelous chili( (for which I later got the recipe.)
It seemed that only a few groups of folks were left..so we headed home about
8:30 p.m. But it was a time, a place, an unusual happening....
1974----the coldest state fair I ever remember...and one of those family times you
don't forget.
(Brian went on to get his Master's Degree in Classical Guitar, graduate study
at Tulane in teaching children's guitar, and has taught at UNM and privately
for 23 years. He has seventy-five students.)
The NM State Fair grounds, which were once at the edge of Albuquerque, are
now in the "middle of town," ----a section of land bounded by Central, Lomas,
San Pedro, and Louisiana. The MIDWAY is on the south side and the horse-
race track on the NW side.
The Fair's shady lanes beckon about this time every year...to those who are agile
walkers and love the gentle fall air!
You could once get in for fifty cents....
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MIL
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