- Too many people wearing jeans (it was 88 degrees)
- A young woman having a long and earnest conversation with the James Madison impersonator about the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts
- The National Guard and their desert-beige armored vehicles, watching us walk into a gap in the canyon of tall fences, and into the security line
- The full gamut of AI-generated patriotic polos, tees, and Hawaii shirts
- A horse with a large patch of blue glitter on its rump (a participant in the evening’s display of rodeo)
- Signs for “The world’s largest engine” (alas, I missed it)
- A large display with an AI image of a George Whitefield-type alerting us to “The Great Awakening” and that “America Will Be Saved” (Call to action unclear.)
- $10 for a standard hot dog plus a bag of chips; $20 for a “Great Western Sausage”
- A gaggle of frat bro types striding across the grass, looking up at the sky: “They should have like hella bald eagles flying.”
- A gentleman complaining that kids tees were $30 and not made in America
- A mini golf course in the Indiana booth
- Giant corn and apple statues in the Virginia booth (not produce that I’m aware of us being known for)
- A guy wearing an “International Potato Center” t-shirt (what turns out to be fascinating international potato research effort based in Peru)
- One fair employee just wandering through the pavilion with a handful of loose zip ties
- National guardsmen standing either side of the door to the Department of War pavilion, ushering a mom with a stroller into the shadowy interior
- Phone charging station where you can “Jumpstart your child’s future” by opening a Trump Account
- A stunning pink sunset behind the ferris wheel and the Washington Monument
- A roaming Newsmax reporter
- Not much evidence of the day’s theme, “Future of America | Innovation, Technology & Progress” (maybe that was supposed to be covered by the world’s largest engine?)
- A couple park rangers who I embarrassed myself in front of by pointing to my Zion National Park hat, saying, “I’m representing one of your locations!” and getting a polite and confused smile back.
- A shocking lack of funnel cake or traditional, fried state fair cuisine
And on the walk home, my first lightening bug of the summer. So that was nice.
Christina Ribbens (’19) studied history, studio art, and data science at Calvin and public humanities at Georgetown. She now lives in the part of Virginia that’s almost Washington, DC where she helps award grants to arts nonprofits. She takes a lot of walks to admire the landscaping in peoples’ front yards, mostly listens to British comedians’ podcasts, and likes to make friends via sports.
