Fair, Free, Fun
Towards the end of the school year in 2014, I learned a life lesson I will never forget: being frugal allows you to appreciate the simple things in life. I figured this out when I visited my best friend/cousin in Lewisburg, West Virginia. The small town was normally quaint and quiet, except for one week every summer when the state fair would take place. There was always terrible traffic, creepy tourists, and crowds of people walking the street. Needless to say, it was overwhelming.
On the first day when the inevitable fair began, my cousin, McKynlee, and I became extremely agitated. We wanted to go to the mall or the movies, but because of the traffic, we could only get to places on foot. We blamed Jim Justice, the man who practically owns the town. From what I have heard, Jim was a terrible man. He was greedy, wealthy, but worst of all, he lacked organization skills. It was his fault we were stuck with nothing to do and that was when I remembered an old legend I had heard as a child. “Behind the health department, back beneath the trees, there is a fence with a hole in it… this hole is unlike any other hole. This one will lead you to the inside of the state fair.”
McKynlee and I decided to test our luck and we set out on a two mile walk to the health department. Low and behold, we found the hole in the fence beneath the trees. It was big enough for us to step through and we came out on the other side in a slightly wooded area. We managed to push our way through the branches, ducking our heads below the ones at eye level, before
coming upon the trailer area, where the carnies slept. We hurried pass them, doing ninja crawls when necessary, and before we knew it, we were at the horse track of the fair. From there, we walked up a steep hill and we had successfully made it inside.
Even though it was probably really illegal, we saw it as “sticking it to the man”, that man being Jim Justice. The fair was ridiculously overpriced, costing $20 a day to get into the grounds and $40 for a riding pass. Every year nearly 200,000 people attended the fair, according to WSAZ3 News (WZA3 News). The fair makes approximately 4 millions dollars just in ticket sales alone, yet poverty in West Virginia has remained high, with the number of children living in poverty growing (WV Policy). While West Virginians continue to suffer financially, Jim Justice only gets richer. He is able to afford things like Lionel Richie to sing at his daughter’s wedding and brand, new houses for basketball recruits of the local high school, but he has shown no effort to help his town, even though he is a self-proclaimed billionaire. McKynlee and I refused to pay our way in, even though we could. I didn’t want to be responsible for putting money in this man’s pocket. He could have and should have lowered prices to make it more affordable for everyone in the county, but instead we were to forced to fend for ourselves and find alternative ways in. Our only problem now was, while we were able to walk around, we were not able to ride any rides.
We hung out with people we knew, talking to familiar faces here and there, before sitting down on a bench near one of the games. The man running it smiled at us. He was older, bald, with missing teeth. He asked us to play his game. We explained our predicament to him, about not having money. “Let me tell you a little secret,” he said in a thick, country accent. “You can
ride any ride for free, if yer tell ‘em Country sent you.” Presumably, this man went by the name Country, so we took his advice and went to test it out. Sure enough, it was true.
If we walked up to a ride and said “Country sent us”, the carny would let us on, no hassle. In exchange for their kindness and silence on the matter, we gave them coke… to drink from one of the soda machines. We didn’t think the situation could get any better, until it did.
Throughout the grounds, laid slot machines. The carnies running them would give people a dollar in quarters as a way to get people to play the machines. McKynlee and I gladly accepted the quarters but did not use them for the game. Instead, we would keep them and gather up as many coins as we could. Pretty soon, it became a game and we would go to the four different slot machines, get money from the carnies and count how much we had. By the end, we had $36.00 worth of quarters. Exhausted, we walked out of the exit and to a nearby Subway, where we paid with the money we had made. The rest was spent on icees and shopping at the mall.
We had a blast each day of the fair, sneaking in and riding for free. It was such a genius idea, that eventually word got out about the hole in the fence. And by word got out, I mean an angry lady at the health department saw me and McKynlee, and a few random kids, climbing through the hole and called someone to board it up with wooden planks. We discovered this on Friday morning and were baffled. Our plans would be ruined if we couldn't get into the fair because Hunter Hayes was performing that night and McKynlee’s friend could get us in. We walked to the entrance to scope out a way to sneak past the admissions booth, but it was pretty much impossible.
McKynlee and I decided to walk around the side of the 10 ft high metal fence, when I noticed something. A gate that was locked had a small gap underneath. I studied it before realizing I could get under if I tried. I got low to the ground and crawled under the fence. I was inside the fair, just like that. I tried to get McKynlee to then crawl under as well, but she wouldn’t. We were stuck on opposite sides an as I tried to figure out how to get her in, a man yelled, “HEY YOU.”
I ran and hid in the barn, where people kept their animals they would be showing in auctions, and McKynlee called my cell, telling me to meet her at the exit. I saw her from a distance, standing nonchalantly outside the fence. I walked through the exit, getting my hand stamped on the way out. This meant I could walk back in the fair for free. While the ink was still wet, I grabbed McKynlee’s hand and pressed it against mine. Just like that, we both had the stamp. Back around at the entrance, we got in with no problem.
Inside, we spent the day riding rides and making more slot machine money. Around six, we headed to the Hunter Hayes concert, where McKynlee’s friend let us in. Somewhere in the midst of chaos, McKynlee’s friend took my phone, taking off the case, before throwing it at Hunter Hayes. I was mortified, not because I was a fan, but because otter boxes are really expensive. After the concert, I asked him for my case back, and he signed it before throwing it to me from the stage. That year for Christmas, I gave the case to McKynlee as a gift. Not because I thought she wanted it, but because I didn’t want to get her a present.
The moral of the story is sometimes being frugal can work out in your favor. In other words, you don’t have to spend a dime to have a great time!
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