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Thursday, Oct. 09, 2008

Fair-ly unknown: It's anyone's guess what makes Perry's mega-fair 'National'

PERRY -- For the better part of two decades, the Georgia National Fair has made a name for itself.

As in, "It ain't the state fair. It's the national fair."

There is a difference.

Isn't there?

Surely some Fair World governing body has to slap its seal on an expo before it can be deemed "state-," "national-" or "shopping-center-parking-lot-" quality.

There are certainly standards for such designations.

Right?

After all, fair-goers are a discriminating bunch. So we asked them, "Why is it called the Georgia National Fair?"

A woman at a strawberry-shaped frozen drink hut in an airbrushed "Strawberry Mama" cap answered, "So everybody in the nation can come to it?"

The same woman, re-guessing, said, "Maybe it's nationally advertised. ... State fairs are only statewide advertised."

A high-school kid on location with his Future Farmers of America chapter said, "For everybody coming around and getting together?"

So that makes it "national?"

The FFA kid replied, "I think. It could."

But there has to be more to it than that. "National" is just so, so ... worldly. (Then again, they did have a "World's Fair" in Knoxville, Tenn., in 1982.) Even if the Perry fairgrounds are home to perhaps the most striking man-made, interstate-side landmark - a focal-point clock tower - between, say, Atlanta and Orlando, Fla.

"I don't think Georgia has a state fair," a fellow cooking pork steaks on an open pit said. "So this is more or less their state fair, but it's a national fair."

But what does he know? He's from Florida. May as well be from France.

Which, it so happens, is where a guy at a picnic table near the west gate is from. The Frenchman himself was wondering what makes the thing "national." He said he'd even scoured the Internet in search of an answer.

"I was wondering if Georgia was a nation now," he said.

So were some women from the singing group Mustang Sally.

"We think it's the Georgia National Fair because they only allow Georgia nationals in," one of the singers joked.

But plenty of other folks weren't kidding about the answer to the fairly unanswerable question.

Take the guy in the Georgia Bulldogs cap.

What makes it national?

"Because," he said, "it travels from one county to the next."

A high-schooler at a pizza stand guessed, "Because it comes every year. It goes out through the nation."

A game-operator lady at a basketball-toss booth assumed it's "because it's known everywhere. It's a big thing."

A gray-haired artist painting a mountainscape on a mirror figured, "Probably because it's in Georgia in the nation of United States."

Then there was the lady in line at the merry-go-round.

"It goes national," she declared. "It goes all over."

OK, so where's the next stop?

"Alabama," she said.

Then where? Mississippi maybe?

"Yeah."

Then Louisiana?

"Yeah."

What would be next?

"Texas."

Then?

"I don't know from there," she said. "Mexico?"

A woman smoking a cigarette in front of a ride called the Scooter wasn't sure either. She seemed puzzled.

"If it's Georgia it's just one state then, right? So why would it be national?" she said. "I guess because they say so."

Turns out, she is right.

Some 20 years back, with the Georgia State Fair property of the venerable Macon event, officials dreamed the name up.

"To lessen the confusion and establish an identity," a fair spokeswoman, pausing for an emphatic chuckle, explained, "they just chose Georgia National Fair."

To contact writer Joe Kovac Jr., call 744-4397.