El Paso County Fair 2008

I got up this morning, took a shower, got dressed, fed the cats and the bird. Today is the day to take all entries to the county fair in Calhan, Colorado. So I pulled out my daytimer (yes, I still use one of those...my phone is just too complicated to put all that info into) and discovered I had 1 hour and 15 minutes to go 20 miles to enter my afghan into the fair. For some reason, I thought the deadline was 5 p.m. It's tough getting old...memory is the first to go. So my husband did a Mapquest of the location and we hopped into the car and drove to Calhan.

When we arrived, we were greeted by two very nice women who pointed me in the right direction. I thought to myself that it was fairly simple just checking in. They were pleasant enough. I received my labels for the afghan along with a safety pin to attach it with and proceeded to the knitted items area. Now, this is my first entry EVER so I had no idea what to expect. But everyone appeared to be having a sort of good time so I thought this would be a breeze.

Ok..first of all, never underestimate the power of a little old woman in a position of power. I guess the better way to say that is this: never underestimate the power of a little OLD woman in the position of ASSUMED power! My husband and I were looking to see where the afghans were to be placed for judging and this tiny, little, hunched-over, gray-haired lady comes over and gives me a look that basically said, "what the hell do YOU want"? She was twirling around one of her fingers a key on one of those plastic wrist chains. I should have known...keys are power! We gave her the label so she could see where the afghan should be placed and in the meantime my husband took a look around the table. Everything was displayed numerically. He said, "oh, here's where it goes!" and she stood up (well, she stood up all hunched over), shook her finger in his face and said in her most imposed upon voice, "Excuse me!!!!!" (you know that voice, it's the one your mother used when she called you using your first and middle name) and pushed right in front of him. (When I was a child, we had to go to the end of the line if we cut.) I looked at my hubby and said, "don't make any waves, please. These people might be judging my wares later and I don't want a problem."

There was another lady there helping and she came over and asked me if she could help. She asked for the labels because I needed to attach them personally. I said, "she's got it", and pointed to our much distressed helper. The new lady looked at her and said, "you're going to have to give that label to her". Old lady then wrapped her hands around it as if it were her most prized possession and said, "I gave her the other half." New lady said, "she has to have it back". Old lady stood there for quite a while, I looked at the new lady and made a face that said, "boy, this is awkward."

Eventually, she gave it up, I attached the label and she informed me she knew what she was doing. NO DOUBT! She was asserting control over the knitting section.

When we walked out, my husband said, "man, I can't believe how rude she was. And did you get a load of all those people in there. They acted like no one had better touch their entries for fear of losing a limb." I said, "what about the greeters? They are the Gestapo of El Paso County, Colorado.

One man was bringing in some pictures that had been mounted but not framed. The check in lady asked him if they were framed. Well, duh! Nothing was framed. He stood there and said, "I don't know." I don't know? I guess he could have been sight impaired or something. Anyway, she said, "no sir, they aren't framed and you can't come in here unless THEY ARE FRAMED. I can't let you in." I looked at the man....blank stare...I mean there was nothing. He just stood there with all those pictures. After our ordeal with Grandma (and I mean that in the most affectionate terms) that man was still standing there. But no more blank stare: you could see the the wheels turning. In my mind I was thinking he was trying to figure out a way to fake out the greeters and get those pictures in there. Sort of like, oh look up in the air, and sneak in while everyone was looking the other way.

We left. I'll go back later and see how I did. (I HOPE SHE WASN'T MY JUDGE!!!)

Will I do it again? Yeah, I guess I will. Next month is the Colorado State Fair and I have two entries there. If little old ladies get power-heads at the county fair can you imagine what the state fair would do? Their heads will explode.

Until next time,