Minnsota State Fair

Day 222: In honor of the beginning of the “Great Minnesota Get-Together”, I present Sweet Martha’s Cookies. These are the most homemade cookies one can get outside of home and you can only get them for two weeks every summer, at 2 locations, both within the Minnesota State Fair grounds, and neither is close enough to the all you can drink for 50 cents Got Milk stand…ahh.

I did not truly experience the joys of the State Fair until I became friends with Michelle Clemens and probably first attended with her in 5th or 6th grade. Having grown up a mere few blocks from one of the biggest state fairs in the country, Michelle was truly a pro. While I made us navigate through the myriads of booths and freebies in the Education building, she showed me the treasures. The best of Midway (though it took us several years to realize only one ride was worth 6 tickets a ride and therefore we just went on that one the whole time), Kare11, talent shows, KTIS tent, Garage Logic and she made us brave the smells and allergies associated with the barns where her cousins always had cows. We spent hours trying to get on the news, using codes and clocks, shirts and hat colors, to discreetly point out the handsome Minnesotan boys we saw, and trying to gather enough courage to brave the Haunted House. The year we finally did, was our last. I stuck with my mom, leaving fingerprints of terror on her poor arms, and I’ll never forget the look on Michelle’s face when she walked out of there, 10 minutes after us, because she was lost behind and I was too selfish to go back in and rescue her.

As we grew older, the sites grew no less entertaining, and the food list was refined to a few essentials. Princess Kay of the Milky Way (farm girl carved in butter) and the milkshakes didn’t, in reality, compare with those our fathers made, but the corn on the cob, pickle on a stick, cheese curds, occasional footlong hotdog, and of course those Sweet Martha’s with the milk were booths permanently engraved on our mental maps. I ate to my heart’s content, thanks to a few days of no sweets and vigorous exercise beforehand.

Gone may be the days of the Giant slide, BSB concerts (I was forced), make-up trailers, and posed pictures on the tractors, but I have no doubt there are more adventures to be had. With Mich by my side, the tactics to get the high school boys to pile on the most possible cookies in that bucket for $14 is an art. The possibility of our current country singer obsession having a concert is a constant pull and I have no doubt that the Minnesota Twins must attend with their families/friends, and if ever I wanted to find them, she'd be the one who could do it. (Picture is courtesy to Bekah, who I'm certain wanted me there and didn't intend to simply make my mouth water)