Nights of Thunder

The real Demolition Derby

In Ward Three, fall means the Morgan House show and the Three County Fair. I heard the action at the demolition derby on Friday night coming in the windows and wafting across the old graveyard. When Sunday night rolled around, I walked down to the Fairgrounds.

"It's like being in a barroom, only you are outside," says my friend Bobby to me, talking about the midway.

The beer smell does carry from the open-air tents, and you can stroll around with your 16 ounce Bud draft without any problem. You can look at the stars, you can look at the pretty girls. There is that fabulous kielbasa stand down near the animal barns, country music, a lot of food stands with pizza and fried bread treats, and the whole thing is a great old-fashioned mélange of smells and noise. The cows, the manure, the kielbasa, the Old Spice, the Chanel number five, the sweet smell of hydrocarbons. And over the sound of the calliope music and the screams of riders on the whirl-a-gig rides is the roar of unmuffled engines and the crash and another crash as a Cadillac De Ville gets rear-ended by a Crown-Vic, spins around and takes out a Honda passing by. The smoke rises, the horn blows, and the firemen rush out and put out an engine fire. The crowd roars. To read the full story, click here