Who makes a Hulk out of canned food but doesn’t use Green Giant vegetables?
Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:
The Indiana State Fair is an annual celebration of Hoosier pride, farming, food, and 4-H, with amusement park rides, cooking demos, concerts by musicians either nearly or formerly popular, and farm animals competing for cash prizes without their knowledge. My wife Anne and I attend each year as a date-day to seek new forms of creativity and imagination within a local context. As if our dwindling downtime to-do list for 2020 weren’t already small enough to fit on a Post-It, Anne and I are still reeling from Thursday afternoon’s announcement that the 2020 Indiana State Fair has been canceled after too many vendors kept backing out, painfully aware that crowds and super-powered viruses remain a volatile mix.
Recounts of our State Fair experiences have been among MCC’s annual traditions ever since I launched the site in April 2012. But it’s not as though our lives began in April 2012. We have quite a few stories not yet shared here from pre-MCC days. We may not be able to make new State Fair memories this year, but we can wallow in the older ones we haven’t revisited in a while.
Hence this previously unshared flashback to our 2011 experience, which featured some of the same staples that longtime MCC readers should know by now. Prime example: super fun art installations!
The State Fair’s annual canned food drive is the most creative one we know. Teams create installations that are then donated to charity once the art-appreciation phase is over. The 2011 theme was probably “Heroes”.
Canned Mr. Incredible stands in solidarity with canned Hulk.
Canned 9-11, in honor of the then-nigh tenth anniversary of the tragedy.
Canned Space Shuttle, possibly but not necessarily the Challenger.
In honor of Super Bowl 46, which would be held February 5, 2012, at Indianapolis’ own Lucas Oil Stadium.
It wouldn’t be Indiana State Fair art if there weren’t Lego sculptures around the exhibit halls. When I was a kid being dragged along while my family looked at 4-H entrants celebrating topics that bored me, every Lego creation was a bright spot in the long hours that I had to wait before the midway rides opened.
Lego Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Lego Indianapolis Colts.
Lego Lucas Oil Stadium from the rear. The Colts weren’t in the Super Bowl that year, but at least we could be proud of the building and the millions in tourist dollars.
Also from the world of Lego Hoosier sports: the Lego Indy 500.
Though our State Fair was canceled altogether, this year’s Indy 500 has been postponed from Memorial Day weekend to August 23rd, which would’ve been the last weekend of the fair. Lego Speedway officials remain hopeful.
A bustling Lego City, where things are peaceful and unblemished by the specters of racism and brutality.
Forget your cares! It’s time to relax at the junction! Lego Petticoat Junction!
And if Lego Hooterville is struck down by Lego COVID-19, everyone can retreat to the Lego Mountains next door. But maybe avoid that observation deck in the middle where no one’s social distancing.
(Sorry. 2020 has been such a long millennium.)
To be continued! Other chapters in this MCC nostalgia-laden miniseries:
Part 1: The Year in Food
Part 3: The Year in Tragedy
Part 4: The Year in Soybeans and So On
Midlife Crisis Crossover! 