These are days before Labor day, right before school starts. We are supposed to be visiting the Minnesota State Fair. We should be walking shoulder to shoulder with thousands of others on a hot sunny day, eating food on a stick and people watching. We should be in the dairy building checking out Princess Kay of The Milky Way, carved out of butter. We should be awed at the crop art and tasting Minnesota grown apples and honey. We should be checking out livestock and watching horse shows. We should be buying trinkets and gadgets and spending money until our pockets are empty and we are too tired to take another step. We should be heading home with full stomachs and happy hearts. But we’re not.
We are at home with our memories. The weather is right, the time is right; we long for the fair, but we can’t go. The corona virus threatens to get us at every turn. We dare not mingle with the 250,000 other Minnesotans who typically attend the fair each day. We are grounded. We are safely tucked in at home with only our closest circles of people. We wear our masks when out in public. We long for next year and we hope things will go back to normal. We know the normal will never be the same. Our new normal will include the corona virus and all of its ravages. We hope for a vaccine. We hope our loved ones do not get sick and we make the best of what we have right now.
We can still enjoy the cooler days. We can walk in the breeze and say goodbye to the monarchs and hummingbirds. We can have one last meal outdoors. We can have late evening bonfires and roast marshmallows around the fire. And we can start planning yard displays of pumpkins and haybales and scarecrows.
We are at the beginning of pumpkin spice season, and nothing can change that!
