MER’s Dulcie Lawrence presents a montage of fair attendee interviews and sounds of the Midway, vendors, and bandstands.
MER’s Dulcie Lawrence presents a montage of fair attendee interviews and sounds of the Midway, vendors, and bandstands.
[MIUSIC PLAYING] SPEAKER 1: We're wading in out of the rain at the Hippodrome while the Seabees band and drill team from Rhode Island warms up.
SPEAKER 2: Well, I'm originally from Minnesota, but the drill team has been at Minnesota State Fair once before.
SPEAKER 1: Where do you come from in Minnesota?
SPEAKER 2: I come from Dodge Center, Minnesota. That's about 75, 80 miles south of here.
SPEAKER 1: Will you be able to get home and see your friends while you're here?
SPEAKER 2: Not really. We're pretty well booked up.
SPEAKER 1: I see. You mean, all through the fair?
SPEAKER 2: Yes. My folks are here right now today, and it's a joy to see them again.
[WHISTLE BLOWING]
[BAND PLAYING]
SPEAKER 3: [INAUDIBLE] [? lives ?] [? near ?] Morton, in Minnesota. But now I'm in open class, judging.
SPEAKER 1: And what does open class mean?
SPEAKER 3: It's anybody can come here from any parts of the world. And they can come here and show cow.
SPEAKER 1: What kind of cows do you exhibit?
SPEAKER 3: Purebred Ayrshires. They're the second largest breed, but Holsteins are bigger than they are.
SPEAKER 1: What are some of the features about the air show that the judges will be looking for?
SPEAKER 3: Well, they'll be looking for if they're sharp over the withers-- and that's at the front end; and if they have a good memory system, and that's their utterance; and see if they're milking correctly. And they look for size to them.
SPEAKER 1: Yeah, what did you say, sharp over the what?
SPEAKER 3: Withers. That's at the front end of their neck.
SPEAKER 1: And cows here?
SPEAKER 4: Yeah.
SPEAKER 1: Which ones are yours?
SPEAKER 4: Red bulls.
SPEAKER 1: Where do you come from?
SPEAKER 4: Lyle, Minnesota.
SPEAKER 1: And how long have you been coming to the State Fair?
SPEAKER 4: It's my first time.
SPEAKER 1: Is it?
SPEAKER 4: The guy I'm with has been coming for I don't know how many years.
SPEAKER 1: Are you going to enter your bull on Monday?
SPEAKER 4: Yeah.
SPEAKER 1: What kind of a chance does he have, do you think?
SPEAKER 4: Pretty good, because there ain't no others like him.
SPEAKER 1: How do you mean that?
SPEAKER 4: There ain't no other two-year-olds here.
SPEAKER 1: So he'll be in a class by himself?
SPEAKER 4: Yeah.
SPEAKER 1: So he's bound to get some sort of a ribbon?
SPEAKER 4: Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER 1: What do you have to do as an exhibitor? Do you have to just stick with him all day and take care of him and walk him around and clean out the stall?
SPEAKER 4: Well, you just do that morning and night, feed him. When you feed him and stuff, clean him off. You've got to watch the line all the time and pick up after him.
[BAND MUSIC PLAYING]
SPEAKER 1: You start getting awfully hungry very soon after you get to the fair. The heavenly smell of those wieners on a stick, I'm told they were invented at the Minnesota fair 26 years ago. And I probably was one of the first to try one.
[BAND MUSIC PLAYING]
SPEAKER 5: OK, folks, here's where you get those Pronto Pups.
SPEAKER 6: How do I get them [INAUDIBLE]?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
SPEAKER 1: Pronto Pups are everywhere, like cattails in a marsh.
SPEAKER 5: Take your girlfriend over here. Bye her a Pronto Pup. Here's the place. Now's the time. Pronto Pups are a delicious treat, truly a banquet on a stick.
[BAND MUSIC PLAYING]
SPEAKER 1: Well, here's a Dixieland combo from the Republican booth, I guess reflecting the Republicans' euphoric mood since their Miami convention.
[BAND MUSIC PLAYING]
The Democrats don't have Doc Evans's band, but they do have ranks of voting machines, where you can vote Yes or No on whether Nixon is doing a good job in the White House.
[BAND MUSIC PLAYING]
What can you do at the State Fair in just a few short hours? Have your spine checked free by a chiropractor. Learn how to weave a coat out of dog's hair. Get a lecture on breastfeeding or Dutch Elm disease, or buy one of those vegetable shredders that only a State Fair huckster can operate. Of course, you don't find that out until later.
Oh, boy, this cabbage, that you've seen on television I'll bet 1,000 times. You've read about it in your magazines. You've seen it in the newspapers. They claim that the American housewife today--
[BAND MUSIC PLAYING]
The average Minnesota fairgoer walks about six miles in a day. For mothers with small children, the wear and tear is exhausting. But there is a free child care center on the fairgrounds.
SPEAKER 7: It's not a babysitting center service. The parents must stay with the child, the parents or brother. No child can be left here unattended. There's a nice, warm heater back here, too.
SPEAKER 1: So that whenever a mother just gets too tired of walking, she can bring the child in and relax for a while.
SPEAKER 7: That's right.
[BAND MUSIC PLAYING]
SPEAKER 1: Well, the rest of us will just have to collapse on the nearest park bench, preferably within range of the Belgian waffles and earshot of a good marching band.
[BAND MUSIC PLAYING]
This is [? Dulce ?] [? Lawrence, ?] at the Minnesota State Fair.
[BAND MUSIC PLAYING]
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