One-man band
We spent a few hours at the Lee County Fair recently. We like county fairs. Yes, we gorged on unhealthy food (funnel cakes, sno-cones and a really tasty gyro dripping with dill sauce), checked out the farm animals (I liked the exotic chickens). We watched the one-man band. I even – at Jett’s urging – paid 50 cents to see the “headless woman”, ostensibly a real human being who was decapitated in an auto accident and was kept alive through a “medical miracle” (which, if true, makes one wonder who paid for that). She looked like a headless refugee from a wax museum. And she was fully clothed. Recommendation to carnival brass: pose her naked and charge a dollar.
Jett and Gilligan (Jett on right)
But the real highlight was the Banana Derby. You have heard of dog-and-pony shows? Well, this was a dog-and-monkey show. Yes, monkey jockeys riding dogs in a race around a short oval. It really wasn’t a fair race as one dog was clearly younger and faster than the other. And the faster dog had the more experienced monkey jockey. But both dogs and both monkeys got treats, so I guess they didn’t much care about the blatant unfairness of it all. There wasn’t much wagering, either.
The race was preceded by a dog doing some high-wire tricks – walking a high beam and jumping off an elevated platform.
As Jett is a big fan of both monkeys and dogs (ok, so am I), it was a pleasant way to spend 20 minutes. Totally free, too – except for the $10 that Jett paid to have her photo taken with her favorite monkey (twice).
Good food, good weather and a dog-and-monkey race. Does it get any better?
Platform leap
High-wire act
The big race
