The Newtown Pentacle

Tuesday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

A friend who lives north of Pittsburgh, in the Butler area, called and opined that I should join him for a day at the Butler County Fair. Why not? I’ve never been to a county fair in a somewhat rural area before.

I decided ahead of time to ignore all the MAGA hats, Trump flags, and the general flexation of reality I would encounter from isolated people who don’t truly realize that they’re rooting for a fascistic NYC Landlord and what all that entails. My goal for the day included eating a corn dog, drinking a lemonade, and getting a few shots of farm critters.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The first thing I encountered were a group of women riding horses around an enclosed field. My ignorance of what they were up to is palpable, but I got the sense that there was some set of rules they were adhering to, and that a judge was scoring the exercise somewhere.

I’ve never ridden a horse. Motorcycles, yes, but horses no.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

There were barn like structures set up as exhibition halls for various forms of livestock. It was a pretty hot day and most of the critters – goats, sheeps, rabbits, llamas, and so on – were having a snooze. There were groups of farm peeps caring for the animals, shoveling hay into their stalls and moving big industrial fans around to keep the critters cool.

The farm people were busy with their charges, so I didn’t get to ask them where they got the cool boots which they were all wearing. Cowboy boot uppers with work boot soles… I’ve always wanted a pair of those but have never been able to find them. Yeah, there’s Amazon, but with shoes you have to try them on.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The real party at the fair was going to kick into gear a few hours later than the interval I was there, which was in the middle afternoon. Butler is an hour and change drive from HQ, and I was watching the weather pretty closely, as a massive thunderstorm was heading towards Pittsburgh that I definitely didn’t want to drive home during it. The evening festivities would include a tractor pull, and displays of automotive prowess.

My plan was to be solidly in the process of driving home by the time the storm came through. One of the ways you can tell you’re in a scarlet red conservative county, in this part of the country, is a lack or paucity of street lighting on high speed roads. Couple the darkness with a storm – no thanks.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

There was also a midway, which was just opening up when I was there. They had all of the ‘carny’ games, many of which were updated with a modern twist, and or branding. Unfortunately, the one where you fire a water gun into a clown sculpture’s mouth to fill a balloon and win a prize has been updated. No more clowns, it’s just a glittered up star with a hole in the middle now.

My friend, a photographer who has lived in Butler for decades, informed me that many of the people attending this event had likely travelled hundreds of miles to get here from deeply rural sections of Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, even Maryland. An entire parking lot was set up for RV’s, camper vans, and trailers, and it was full up.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

It was upon this stretch of the midway where I was seen buying an unexceptional corn dog, and an ok lemonade. My friend got himself a funnel cake, and we sat down for a few minutes under a tent roof at picnic tables set up for the occasion.

We were hoping for some early action at the tractor pull, but the workers were still setting that one up when my deadline for getting back to Dodge – of Dormont, as it’s called – came along. I managed to beat the storm home, but by literal minutes. The sky opened up, and a holocaust of precipitation fell from the vault onto Pittsburgh.

Back tomorrow.

“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle

Buy a book!

“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.