By Mark David Blum
Daddy Daughter day at the Fair is always a special day for me. As she has grown, I have seen it in her eyes and listened to it in her words. The kid has “it” bad. She is a Fair Rat in Training. It is in her blood and the way she lights up when seeing the Fair from the inside looking out, it is written all over her face.
We made our annual stop for breakfast and greetings at our old pal Phil Davoli from Davoli’s trackside. (Frozen margaritas, NASCAR on TV, and hottest bar babes at the Fair).
Phil took a few moments from his otherwise chaotic and busy schedule to chat. He told the story that despite his dinosaur age, that he first started coming to the Fair when he was 5 years old and made friends with the then owner of his current restaurant. When Phil turned 14, he snuck into the fairgrounds and begged the then owner for a job. Of course, he was turned down but Phil being both a smart businessman and budding Fair Rat made the obvious offer: “I will work for free.”
The rest, as the say is ‘history’. After more than 30 years working at the same restaurant at the Fair, Phil finally bought the restaurant and for the past umpteen years, has been as much a Fair mainstay as the Midway itself. Listening to Phil and my daughter talk was beautiful and it was plain as day that I was looking at myself both in Phil and my daughter in me. Rats, rats, everywhere are Fair Rats. It is in your blood and either you have it or you don’t. My kidlet is seriously infected and will sure as the sun is coming up tomorrow, be walking one day in my barefoot tracks; assuming she is not the then Fair Director (as she should be; like her father before her should likewise be).
Beyond the vomiting and other chaos, we had our typical wonderful time. I showed her a few more Fair secrets; like the best place to stand at the Midway if you want to get freaked out. Oh did she love that!
We went into the Time Warner Building and over toward the internet computers available to the public. One by one, we changed the web page showing to Rat Tales and the MarkBlumReport and then walked away. Hey, it’s a favorite State Fair prank of ours for three years now.
