Monday I went to the Minnesota State Fair.  This has been an annual event for me for many years.  Nothing fancy.  In most years I’ve gone by pubic transportation, had a defined ‘circuit’, stayed maybe three hours, then back home.

This day it was probably 80 by the time I arrived at the Fairgrounds about 9, very humid, near 90 when I left about 1.  Back home, in the evening, at a meeting, the metro was hit by big rain, wind, thunder storm.  The Fairgrounds was not immune; it was closed Tuesday morning.  There was no fun last night, that’s for certain, for the people who came.

I asked my search engine how Minnesota ranks among U.S. state fairs.   Apparently second, bested only by Texas.  It’s been around almost since statehood in 1858.  Here’s a thumbnail history.

Here is a snapshot of humanity I saw Monday:

You can’t tell who’s who at these events.  I actually came across four people I knew.  Minnesota is a state of about 5.7 million, about 60% of us in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area.  Enroute to the Fair I chatted with a couple from Wisconsin who were attending for the first time.  In the above crowd were doubtless other ‘aliens’ from foreign places, like Iowa…!

This year I saw less evidence of politics (shirts, caps and the like) than I can recall in recent years.  Of course the parties have their buildings.  The Democrats place was very busy; the Republican not so much.  The outliers, like Libertarians, were in evidence, but it seemed less than previous years.  Two years ago when I was at the Fair, Gov. Tim Walz showed up while I was there.  I don’t think that will happen this year.  His status has changed.  We’ll see.

The Fair is the state’s humanity personified: a community of strangers gathered together, indistinguishable.  “Community” begins before you enter the gate.  I caught my bus in at a public metro bus hub at Maplewood Mall; the driver brought us in on a public highway, to a public Fair.  All along the way, including at the fair were loads of ordinary folks doing the work of the fair in the booths, etc.  When I arrived at the Education Building, usually my primary stop at the Fair, what seemed to be a platoon of service workers – probably kids hired to do routine cleanup duties – seemed to be marching much like a bunch of raw Army privates to somewhere down the street.  It was rather striking!  I wish I had sought out the back story.

One of my annual stops is the band shell, which features music groups each day.  When I happened by, the band for the Minnesota National Guard Red Bull Division was the featured act.  Red Bull (34th Infantry Division), including its band, has a storied history, going way back.  VP candidate Tim Walz spent part of his National Guard career with this division.  Politics did not come up at all, from the stage or the audience.

I got to the band shell about the time the color guard raised the flag.

I’ve seen the band in prior years.  Each year it has an excellent program.  At the end of this years program the band played the medley of armed forces anthems, and the veterans were asked to rise when their branch was announced.  I rose when the Army was called.  I am an American, a military veteran (U.S. Army 1962-63), a Minnesotan and was very proud to be with this band and this group at the Minnesota State Fair.  On this sultry morning – even worse on stage, I’d guess – the bandshell was an uplifting place to be: proud to be an American.

POSTNOTE

I said earlier that I met four people I knew at the Fair.  Three of the five of us are military veterans, Army, Navy, Air Force.  A fourth was unable to serve due to a physical disability, the fifth was not in the military.

Of those in the audience at the band shell, only a small percentage of us rose as service veterans, the largest contingent seemed to be Army.  My friends were all men, most of us old, and there was a message in that as well.

Of course, these days military service is made to be a political issue, often dishonestly.  Gov and VP candidate Tim Walz’s service has been questioned over and over since he first ran for office in 2006 (He retired after 24 years in National Guard in the early 2000s).  It seems appropriate to identify the issue as it relates to the person:  here’s what Snopes found about the real story of Tim Walz and his military service.