Behind the Schnecksville Fair (Natalie, Madison, Jordan and Lyndsay), 2005

Behind the Schnecksville Fair (Natalie, Madison, Jordan and Lyndsay), 2005. From the series, County Fair.

I love Summer nights. The sounds of kids playing down the street, the smell of the warm air coming off the grass and trees after the sun goes down and the flickering of hundreds of fireflies off in the darkness. This was one of those nights that was just about as hot as it was during the day. These kids couldn’t care less about the latest advances in agricultural equipment that is often peddled at these fairs. Nor could they care less about the lemon dessert competition going on 50 yards from where they are standing. When I met them they were wedged, hidden really, between the ride and the truck cab. In the time it took me to focus on them, the ride probably spun through it’s cycle several times and I had almost forgotten about it. So it wasn’t until I processed the film that I realized that the ride looked like an Orson Welles flying saucer coming down to take over the world. Nor did I see the dinosaur off in the distance (perhaps eating a lemon dessert?). For all these kids know it might be the end of the world going on behind them, but they couldn’t care less about that either.