“It’s not over ‘til it’s over,” according to Yogi, but he never attended five consecutive days of Bluffton Free Street Fair … and lived. Jerry Mathers, star of “Leave it to Beaver,” attended one day. PTSFD, Post-tramatic Street Fair Disorder, not intended to make light of sufferings from PTSD, might be experienced by avid Bluffton fairgoers during the week following. Diet and weening off grease is in itself hard to handle. Angelkeep simply recovers by rocking in a chair on the patio, with a campfire blazing, enjoying the softer sounds of bird chirps while reflecting on the harking of the fair’s game carnies.
It could be worse. Can you imagine the stress of stacking, rolling, and counting all those quarters pulled in by the carnie vendors of the Mouse Game?
Angelkeep recalls a potato consumed on Market Street and contemplates attempting a rematch by covering a baked spud with Hormel Chili, Velveeta cheese sauce, and jalapenos. Close. No cigar, but close.
Angelkeep watches multiple pollinator varieties busy as a bee hopping from one zinnia to another in the patio pot of blooms a few feet distant. Notably absent from the pollinator menagerie is the yellow jacket. It seems all of Angelkeep’s yellow jackets attended all five days of Street Fair as well. Many found a new home inside a hanging Mountain Dew jug converted for yellow jacket fairgoers. The residual of yellow jacket removal brings on as much satisfaction as recalling the winning Street Fair Idol song.
Like the other September 2022 Anglekeep Journals’ postings, September’s “week after” entry recalls the knowledge of one man’s fair in 1913. On October 8-11, James Dawley provided the largest collection of wild animals owned by one man in Indiana, but added to that farm products, stock, and canned goods to create a rival extravaganza outdoing many a county fair. What an undertaking for one man, so shortly after Bluffton Free Street Fair. Was it James’ way of coping after the midway of Bluffton evaporated and was washed down to the asphalt?
Angelkeep studied the 60 types of animals James displayed for comparison to Angelkeep. His two mountain burros never visited Angelkeep, but his two deer have ancestral cousins visit here. James’ deer were said to be as tame as lambs. Angelkeep has seen a crow, but not a pair that talked to each other — in English. James displayed his rabbits, baby coons, groundhogs, skunks, buzzards, ring-necked pheasants, owls, coyote, and Canada geese, all previously seen at least once at Angelkeep. His farm animals — horses, cattle, hogs, sheep, poultry — and Shetland ponies were all varieties that had been exhibited on the streets of Bluffton a few days earlier.
Angelkeep could get post-Street Fair anxiety just thinking about all the work that would go into a one-man fair if attempted at Angelkeep. James offered daily attractions of speakers, band concerts, foot races, and pony races. Imagine the cost, way more than Angelkeep spent over five carefree days on the Bluffton midway dining and trying to out-guess a mouse. Years’ past attempts of whacking a mole, flipping a chicken, or ping pong balling a fish long ago went by the wayside. Money had to be saved to return home with bag after bag of butterscotch caramel corn and that delightful, almost diet, kettle corn.
Patio rocking chair dining on a bag of Zanesville kettle corn relieves the anxiety of the previous week’s weight gain. It brings one to a realm of togetherness with nature when chomping on kettle corn at the same time Angelkeep wild fawns crunch down on their own corn kernels. That’s bliss, not PTSFD.
James Dawley’s farm, called Poplar Grove Farm, must have looked something like a larger Angelkeep but with fenced pens, not the natural, wild, travel-at-will habitat of Angelkeep. Angelkeep can match James’ box turtle display on any given day with snapping turtles enjoying muskmelon rinds. Muskmelon becomes a diet staple when needing to rid oneself from Street Fair-added pounds.
Research distraction becomes another diet technique used at Angelkeep to avoid fatty foods. Wells County surveyor’s office online plat maps of 1905 and 1912 provided a look at the location of James’ Poplar Grove Farm. Unexpectedly it was found in Chester Township, almost on the south county line in section 35.
To celebrate this interesting research find, Angelkeep crunches down on a large serving of celery to undo lingering pounds added by consumption of deep fried breaded cheese sticks, which were not sold with a nutritional warning label.
Mr. Daugherty is a Wells County resident who, along with his wife Gwen, enjoy their backyard and have named it “Angelkeep.”
