Ruralite Cafe: Published 09/21/00

By Lisa Majors-Duff

See you at the (Haywood) county fair

Fall to me means many things - chimney smoke, buckeyes, Halloween customs and apples, to name a few. But not just any apples, candy apples. And what better place to get candy apples then at the county fair.

Most will agree that Jackson County has a lot going for it. But we are lacking in the county fair department. I realize some folks in Cullowhee might disagree with this statement. Mountain Heritage Day is, after all, a 25-year-old tradition in these parts for those who interested in the region's crafts, horseshoe matches, mountain music and adorable pets.

Then again maybe those involved in Mountain Heritage Day would happily and emphatically agree that their event is not a county fair. Their midway is not lit after dark; in fact their midway doesn't even exist after dark. There are no booths giving fair goers an opportunity to take home a goldfish if they toss a ping-pong ball in its bowl or a stuffed Scooby Doo if they break three beer bottles with a baseball. Neither does Mountain Heritage Day offer camel rides, a spook house or a Ferris wheel.

All this and more could be found at the N.C. Mountain State Fair in Fletcher. Not only did I eat a delicious red candy apple covered in peanuts, but I finished off a Greek gyro, a corndog, some fries, a couple bites of cotton candy and about a half gallon of fresh lemonade. Even after all that, my mouth still watered at the smell of grilled chicken and ribs, but I didn't have any place to put them.

While the food was good, the rides were better. At age 6, my daughter is now brave enough to ride all the kiddie rides and nearly big enough for a good number of the grownup rides. After making it through the Fun House, we headed over to the Castle of the Dead. The bloody, headless skeletons painted on the outside of the building caused little Niki to back out twice before the lady took our tickets. She was finally convinced to go through when her friend Sarah, with clinched fists in fear and saucer-sized eyes, said she was going.

They went through, all right, but neither of them saw anything. In the pitch black I reached over to Niki and found her hands over her eyes. No amount of prying would remove them. And Sarah had hidden her entire head in her sweater. Ask either one of them what they liked best about the fair, and they say the spook house.

In addition to good food and great rides, county fairs offer a wide variety of agricultural demonstrations and livestock. We saw everything from prize-winning bulls to woolly sheep to furry rabbits. Women in bonnets were spinning wool into yarn, while a farmer in overalls were showing the children how to plant potatoes.

If that's all just a little too mundane, the Mountain State Fair offer a taste of the exotic, as well. After riding the camel, the kids saw a zebra at the petting zoo and tiger cubs in the next booth.

The N.C. Mountain State Fair ended this weekend, but there are still several opportunities to go to the county fair, according to the latest edition of Carolina Country, which lists a total of 47 fairs across the state, including the North Carolina State Fair in Raleigh Oct. 13-22. A little closer to home is the Haywood County Fair, which starts Sept. 26 through Oct. 1. For more information on this event, call (828) 452-6758 or send email.

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