By Staff
FAIR GAME – Kristen Beckman, 10, of Enterprise, shoots to win during a visit Saturday to the Queen City Fair at the Lauderdale County Agri-Center. The fair continues daily through Saturday. For today's schedule, see page A2.Photo by Carisa McCain / The Meridian Star
By Steve Gillespie / staff writer
September 29, 2002
The Queen City Fair midway was mostly bare Saturday except for a small crowd outside a game where 10-year-old Kristen Beckman of Enterprise picked off targets with a pop gun.
Beckman was trying to win stuffed animals.
Asked where she learned to shoot like that, Beckman shrugged, blushed, grinned and said "I don't know" as she rolled her eyes the way little girls do when asked a ridiculous question.
Beckman wasn't interested in an interview. After hitting targets with her cork "bullets," she asked her grandmother and her aunt, Jennifer Lewis of Enterprise, for "two more dollars" for another turn.
She was having fun. And so were others in the sparse crowd who visited the fair Saturday afternoon, the second day of its nine-day run at the Lauderdale County Agri-Center. The fair runs through Oct. 5.
On the other side of the midway, Tony Marks was trying to entice spenders by offering passersby a free turn at his game where people could win stuffed animals by tossing balls into a large basket.
Originally from Detroit, he said he has worked at fairs and carnivals for 27 years.
Marks also thought the fair's opening night on Friday was slow. He was waiting for more people to show up Saturday evening.
Jesse R. Brewster Jr., president of the board of directors of the Wechsler Community Arts Center Association, wondered where everyone was, too.
He was selling turkey legs, roasted corn and soft drinks at a booth to raise money for the local Wechsler renovation project.
Len McRae, owner of Eventz Inc. and organizer of the Queen City Fair, wasn't disappointed Saturday. Asked about the afternoon attendance, he said; "This was totally expected. Tonight it will be swamped."
He also said the opening-night crowd was better than he had expected Friday.
The lack of a crowd Saturday afternoon was exactly what Marcia Mitchell, 31, of Newton, had counted on.
She brought her two sons, ages 8 and 5, to the fair early so they wouldn't have a long wait in lines for games, rides and attractions.
She said last year she came to the fair at night, and it was too crowded.
She waited for the boys as they played with llamas, pigs, goats, chickens and other animals in the petting zoo pen.