My Affair with the Fair

Kettle Moraine Days is always held the last weekend in June. It opens at 5:00 p.m. Friday night. As you approach the festival you will see the lit-up Ferris wheel whirling, the red blazing tilt-a-whirl, eerie haunted house, and other rides for all to enjoy.

Music is beating from the carnival area. Like most carnivals games are available with carnies calling out to come and try your luck to win a prize. Don't be surprised if you come home with a goldfish in a small glass bowl for your child!

The smell of Italian sausages, deep fried golden corn dogs, freshly buttered popcorn and fluffy cotton candy fill the warm breezy air. All ages from babies to 102 years old enjoy the fair. Begin and bring back the childhood memories!

Kettle Moraine Days holds a special place in my husband and my hearts'. Twenty five years ago he asked me to go to the beach the following day. We've been together ever since. Each year we try to attend the lively festival. We did, however, miss Kettle Moraine Days when I was pregnant with twins. There was no way I could walk around the lush green grass that long!

From Friday night until Sunday evening a band is in the huge beer tent. Dancers have fun mingling with old friends. It is like a high school reunion. Wine and a variety of beers is served. You can expect to pay $5.00 to enter the beer tent. The money helps to pay for the bands hired to play. Kettle Moraine Days is sponsored by the Eagle Fire Department. Kettle Moraine Days is a fund raiser for the fire department.

The Eagle Fire Department is always on hand in case of emergencies.

On Saturdays, usually from noon until 5:00 p.m., a parent can buy their child a ride wrist band for $15.00 and he or she can enjoy as many rides as possible! It takes our three boys less than one hour to get their monies worth!

Saturday night is the big night at the beer tent. Usually the main, most expensive, band is there to play. By mid evening, it is almost shoulder to shoulder through the crowd!

On Sunday morning come and enjoy a pancake breakfast in the good outdoors!

At noon on Sunday is the lavish Eagle Parade. Filled with veterans carrying flags, silly clowns, fun and crazy business floats, prancing horses all decked out with matching riders, marching bands from as far as Milwaukee, Wisconsin, local and surrounding fire department trucks, dressed up marching dogs, Lions Club members doing tricks on very small motorized bikes, fancy old-time cars with the year and make displayed on the side, and more! One year I recall a loud army chopper opening up the ceremony of the parade. That was very exciting! You may even see the Dancing Grannies!

Candy is strewn to the children. A plastic Wal-Mart bag can just about be filled! Beer tickets are handed out to adults from a wild bartender on an ATV, churches hand out information with Frisbees, super balls are thrown, and any business which would like to advertise offers a discount to a product or information.

A silly game I saw played during the parade involved horse apples. A few of the participants drew a large graph on the blacktop road with a number in each square. The participants had a copy of the graph with names on it. Each square was worth about $5.00. If a horse left an "apple" in your square you won the prize money which was about $200.00!

It is so much fun to run into people we have not seen in years. We look forward to this fun-filled event each summer. It has become a tradition in our family. Bring your lawn chair!