By Susan Hayhurst

I love country-themed books, including “Humor from the Country” by Jerry Apps at the 2018 great Indiana State Fair’s Pioneer Village. The book provides a great glossary of “dandy” farm talk.

The state fair is a wonderful place for talking with friends and visitors about how things are in their “neck of the woods.” Watch out for those who are known to “lie like a rug.” This year’s big-top circus was “just like uptown,” but you might have to tell people to “keep their shirt on” when lines are long. Some people walk around the fair “like a chicken with its head cut off,” while others might think the shuttles are slow and “make a stink.”

The fair is a great place to people-watch. My late father would sit on a bench eating an ear of corn slathered in melted butter and comment, “See that woman over there. She has a ‘face that would stop a clock.’” After a long day seeing the fair’s sites, Dad would tell Mom and I to “crack the whip” and “beeline” for a last ice cream cone.

We would inevitably run into people we knew as we walked toward the car and would “chew the fat” with them. We were all “dog tired” and “limp as a dishrag,” but never failed to notice men wearing “high-water pants.” On the flip side, many women dressed as if they were “putting on the dog.”

The friendly 4-H’ers gave each other a “run for your money” with their competitiveness, but they pulled off their projects as “slick as can be.”

As we headed toward our “neck of the woods,” we noticed a stoplight “on the fritz” and young men looking like they were “out tomcattin,’” too. Indiana’s state fair “takes the cake!” every year. 2018 was no exception.

Hayhurst writes from Terre Haute, Ind.