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Friday, October 26, 2012

Festering at Fall Fairs


Tiss the season to fest and fair! Apple fest, Fall fest, Garlic Fest, Pumpkin Fest, Cider fest, Beer fest, Harvest Fest, October Fest….Stroudsburg had a Sausage fest (distinctly different than those experienced during your collegiate career) Bloomsburg had a Fair, so did the “West End” and countless other organizations. Lets not forget the Renaissance fair, which is in a class of hell all onto itself, but with charming accents.  I have a distinct love hate hate relationship with all and any of the above, and their brethren worldwide. 

Some new lexicon:

If one who parties is a partier, and similarly one who swims is a swimmer, then by extension one who Fests, is a Fester.  This is not a definition according to Dictionary.com but it should be.  In fact it’s close to my experiences…..I fester at the Fair, which is some nice alliteration.

The following is the text from the definition, with my comments in the ()

fes·ter: verb (used without object)
1.         To form pus; generate purulent matter; suppurate. (Zits caused by the grease saturated Air, or maybe the surprisingly tasty deep fried Oreo’s covered in chocolate sauce.)

2.         To cause ulceration, as a foreign body in the flesh. (Ulcers due to the increase stress and bile production caused by the frustration of being part of a sea of humanity suffering from the general lowering of IQ of any massed group of people.)

3.         To putrefy or rot. (This is what happens as you wait in line, to buy tickets, which give you the right to wait in line for food, to be consumed while in line to see an “attraction”, which is part of the wait you must endure for the restroom, prior to waiting in line for the tram to take you back through the parking lot, allowing you to get into your car to enter the cue waiting in line to leave.)

4.         To rankle, as a feeling of resentment. (The general emotion I feel towards people who take me to Fests and Fairs, as in “I am rankled by the act of festering”

I like the idea of festivals; music, food, a bit of culture.  But the execution always fails me.  Part of it is the amount of people, slowly meandering about, aimlessly looking the various booths of un necessary items, constantly in my way.  And part of it is paying for the right to wait in line….. After thinking about it, festival enjoyment is inversely proportional to the number of people in your party, factored by the number of children under drinking age. 
  
So follow this:

Wine Festival:   You and your spouse walk hand in hand, sampling wine and enjoying some good music, no hurry or agenda….this is ideal.

Garlic Fest:       You and your spouse walk holding the hand of the kids, fighting through vendors, trying to escape with your life…..less than ideal.

Apple Fest:       You and your spouse hold the kids hands, while wading through the masses, realize the other couples are behind you waiting in line for a pretzel, forcing you to wait nearby for them…..once the pretzel is purchased they catch up and after a brief discussion, the other couple heads off for ice cream, so you continue to wait….the kids stage a full blown rebellion and you spend 85 dollars on two root beer floats to quell the revolution. By the time you make it to the music venue the fun band is over and the local high school garage band is tuning up, poorly. The kids are sugared up and there is no place to sit.  In the hopes containing the kids you leave them at the venue to wait in line for more food, which is fried and cold by the time you are able to return only to find the group has already determined it was time to leave because they missed the fun band……

BOOM! Brain explosion!

So the fest is full of festering festers, who fester in line….that's a lot of pus. Enough said.

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