STATE STATE STATE STATE

Howdy Ya'll I'm Big Tex!

poor guy

I laugh every time I see this photo, I honestly think it's so funny. Everything he knows and loves is on fire!

Okay a little bit of background. That weird guy on fire up there is named Big Tex, and he is basically the mascot for the State Fair of Texas. He's a giant, 55 foot cowboy that greets all visitors coming and going to the State Fair. He also talks, but like a baby doll, has like three phrases, that he bellows out from time to time.  He caught on fire my sophomore year of high school and it's all ANYBODY could talk about. For like, weeks. But they made him bigger, faster, stronger. And now he is 56 feet tall!

You know the whole "everything is bigger in Texas" phrase? Well, yeah, The State Fair of Texas kind of takes that phrase and runs with it.  It's basically a giant fair ground filled with rides and shows and exhibits. It's here for three weeks (the end of September to the middle of October), and kids even get a day off from school, called Fair Day, so that they can go spend a ton of money on tickets (the currency of the State Fair) to buy things like:

I think this is fried Carrot cake?

And get on rides like Crazy Mouse (which is a personal favorite of mine):

This ride has been around since my mom was in her early 20s

To be honest, I have way too many good memories from the fair. I usually go three times. Once with my mom's side, where we spend our time watching the shows and appreciating all the free events of the fair, like pig races!!!

Aww.

And this cute show called 'The Backyard Circus' where little kids get to put on a circus for their parents.  We usually leave around nine at night and we always try at least one fried thing.

A second time with my dad's family. My grandpa usually gives my cousin and I about fifty dollars each to spend on tickets, which are then spent on riding really dangerous but absolutely entertaining rides all night. My grandpa plays pool and wins us some kind of tacky bear that we love because he won it for us. My aunt gets these tasty potato-things called Tater Twisters, and we end up staying until eleven because my family has ultimately gotten so plastered on State Fair beer that they lost track of time. Then we go eat at Hooters because what better place to go when drunk?

A third time with my friends. We stay for three hours at most and eat a ton of food and ride one or two rides. Mostly we get pictures. Who doesn't love a great State Fair of Texas picture?

And there is no better and simultaneously worse day spent at the fair then the fateful day when UT/OU square off against each other. 

If you do not know what those letters stand for, they stand for University of Texas and University of Oklahoma, and when they come together on that Saturday to play football in the Cottonbowl, it's like a war between cultures, between ideologies, between states and between beliefs. Everything you know is questioned that day. Everything you stand for. In fact, if you can stand by 5 o'clock in the evening, you've done something wrong.

That day, you better pick a color. You're either burnt orange. Or you're crimson red. But you cannot be both. And you better beware the hand signs, because while one is the offical hand sign:

HOOK EM HORNS

The other is a parody and is not tolerated under any circumstances.

it's just upside down, that is so dumb

Which ever side wins that day also gets bragging rights for whole year, but more importantly, the rest of the day. Which means that if your side looses, it's pretty much going to be an insufferable day. My senior year UT lost and I nearly got into a tussle with a drunk frat boy from OU who kept bugging me and wouldn't go away. My uncle had to go up to him and threaten to beat the crap out of him before the guy would leave. Now can you imagine that but so much more. I've seen so many stupid fights on this day, it's not even worth my time showing you a picture.

And yet, it's a day of magic and of excitement. And of traffic, oh my god.

Yes the State Fair is something I dearly miss. I'm not even going to get to go to another fair till I graduate college, which really stinks, because I hate having to get secondhand information on all the happenings over the phone.