This Just In – The North Carolina State Fair will kick off this weekend and, at least of some level, everything will feel normal.
I love the fair. From funnel cakes to fried ice cream, it’s a glorious trip down Memory Lane, recalling the sweet days of my children’s youth. Riding the rides, winning a doomed goldfish and my husband stumping everyone who ever tried to guess his age. (I’ve seen his ID and I still don’t believe it)
Last year I went with my daughter-in-law and the grandsons and we had a supremely excellent time. We most enjoyed the geese we met on the way out, splashing into and out of a little pond constructed for them. Simplicity itself – complete with honking and fluttering feathers. Yes… of course I have video.
This year, I think we’ll be missing the fair. My otherwise indestructible daughter-in-law took a nasty spill a few weeks ago and broke a bone or two in her foot. After surgery to repair it last week – no weight-bearing for a month. Although we all love the fair, it’s harder to love it on crutches, or a scooter. We’ll have to save our appetite for that sausage, pepper and onions until next year. *sigh*
Since missing the fair for a year or two because of COVID, I really appreciate it much more. I’m sure there are new things at the fair every year – new, exciting things. Amazing things. That’s wonderful, but it’s not why I appreciate the fair as I do.
It’s the sameness that I’ve come to love and look forward to. The North Carolina State Fair is a time machine. Like many of us, I sometimes want to step back a decade or two. More importantly, I appreciate that it takes work to put this show on and it’s not a last-minute thing to pull it off. There are logistics that I can’t even imagine in transporting SO MANY animals of all shapes and sizes to one place and locating them on the fairgrounds safely.
Do the chickens come first or last? I have no idea. I’m just glad they do.
Oddly enough, it reminds me of elections. All kinds of elections – presidential, mid-term congressional, primaries, school board races. They happen on different cycles, spring and fall, special elections. So many elections.
So much of what happens to prepare for and ensure the security and fairness of our elections happens out of our view. Designing ballots. Testing ballot counting machines, training poll workers. We are very fortunate that in our community we continue to have plenty of volunteers to do this critical work and make it all happen by the time the polls close on Election Day.
Like the fair, it’s the sameness of many parts of voting and elections that are comforting. I used to be greeted by my longtime neighbor at our precinct. She would ask me the required questions, we’d exchange a wink and she’d send me along the line to take my ballot. No funny business, but we both enjoyed the wink. She passed away several years ago and we go to early voting now at the Seymour Center, so I miss that little moment with my neighbor.
I never took that for granted. I don’t take for granted but I do trust that my vote will be properly counted and, along with those of my fellow citizens, will determine what’s coming next at every level of government.
I hope we have all learned by now that democracy and the function of our constitutional republic are not inevitable. WE MUST elect people to conduct our country’s business with integrity and in the best interests of all of us. This election may be our last chance to ensure our basic rights are protected.
So, gather your information on candidates. Talk to your neighbors. Give someone a ride to the polls or help them secure a mail-in ballot. It’s too important to stay home this year.
VOTE VOTE VOTE!
Jean Bolduc is a freelance writer and the host of the Weekend Watercooler on 97.9 The Hill. She is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.
Readers can reach Jean via email – jean@penandinc.com and via Twitter @JeanBolduc
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