Lets all go to the fair

If you haven't noticed already, I punctuate a good number of these writings with rememberances of times gone by. Well, I've been working on one that came to me after viewing some old monster movie posters from the 1950's. This memory was back in Topeka, Kansas at the county fair.

As I recall, the fair came to town in September. For a young lad, a visit to the fair was like hitching a ride with Alice on a journey through Wonderland. A replica of the Statue of Liberty made of butter, a large faucet suspended in mid air gushing forth water. Such seminal amusements to behold. Of course, there were the rides with names like the Tornado, Scream Swing, and the Cliff Hanger. Then there was the House of Terror, and here is where my recall takes focus. The large billboard facade of the house was painted with the most lurid depictions of gore and dismemberment. The most intriguing aspect of the bloody mural was that the victims were all young women with little or no clothing on hanging from meathooks, draped over tree limbs, or being held in the claws or mandibles of hideous monsters. I'll hazard a guess that the painter of this gory mural might have had huge psycological problems with the opposite sex.

What truly is a wonder was that this illustrated atrocity was right there in the buckle of the bible belt, and people walked by it without a second glance. Except Me. See you at the fair!