Celebrating the South

It’s where summer romances blossom and fade, all within a week. Walk around the racetrack on Saturday night holding hands with your “fair boyfriend.” Break up on Tuesday. Lick your wounds with a deep-fried corndog and fresh-squeezed lemonade from Lindsey’s Lemonade Stand at the Midway. And find a new boy to dance with in the sawdust at the Pavilion Wednesday night. 

It’s a serious celebration of the Southern stomach. Spoiling your appetite with funnel cakes and Polish sausages at the Midway is a rite of passage. Each cabin owner trots out the home cooking, with a week’s worth of menus that would make the late Edna Lewis, the grande dame of Southern cooking, swoon. And the holy trinity of Southern-fried goodness always makes a guest appearance: chicken, okra, and green tomatoes.

It’s late nights on porches and impromptu jam sessions. Last year, that led to the ceremonial passing of the mason jar…I think.

It’s watching the horse races from the back of a pickup truck or a cabin porch. And anyone worth their souvenir T-shirt has scars from the Chair Races: a mad rush of lawn chairs bound together with duct tape--all angling for a front-row seat for the Miss Neshoba County Pageant or other nighttime entertainment.
But to truly describe the fair--well, it’s enough to make the most seasoned fairgoers throw up their hands and say, “Just come, y’all.” And we mean it.

The Neshoba County Fair: 16800 State 21 South, Philadelphia, MS 39350; www.neshobacountyfair.org. dates: July 24-31. Day tickets, $15; season tickets, $30 ages 10 and up.

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