Earlier this year I visited the local Mountain State Fair here in the Mountains of NC. Sadly, for the past several years my beloved Freak Show has vanished. Last year I received word from a close friend of mine that the larger state fair in Raleigh, NC still had a freak show. I waited 12 long months and finally made my way to the state fair in Raleigh and I was not disappointed.
Of course the NC state fair had all the modern conveniences of a fair. Like over the top, ridiculously unhealthy food stuffs.....
1,400 pound Pumpkins......
Companionship hay.....
Rides, such as the Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Ferris Wheel.
And the Zombie Apocalypse dark ride, which my 10 year old daughter rode without blinking an eye.
And this weird dance club themed fun house.....
And what would the fair be without a little old time religion.
We found this odd little traveling bear exhibit, which I was happy to check out. I can never pass up an opportunity to see some bears.
Our three dollars were not wasted, as we not only got to see some bears up close and personal, but we got to see a man snuggling with the bears like they were a bunch of puppies.
Check it out....
Of course all this is awesome, but the reason I came was for the freak show. The hunt begin. We located several one-off exhibits. The first of these exhibits was "The World's Smallest Horse".
I paid my dollar and headed up into the barn. The smallest horse was in a pit in the center. He was small, there is no denying that, but I'm not even sure if he was the smallest horse that I have personally seen. I wasn't supposed to take pictures, but I can't help myself.
Keeping with the theme of smallestness, we came across a booth advertising the World's smallest Woman.
You see that little box that says $10,000 dollar reward? She's in there. What makes this experience different is that you walk around back and suddenly you are inches away from "Tiny Tina", who is a real live person. Tina is indeed very small. She was kind enough to let me take her picture.
She was pretty adorable.
Next up: The Snake Woman.
Now tell me that you could say no to that! We headed in to find human head on the end of a motionless snake's body talking smack to the onlookers. There was signs asking not to take pictures, but again: I can't help myself. I slyly slid my iphone along the grate and snuck a picture.
Unfortunately, Snake Lady saw what I was doing and yelled at me. Apparently she wasn't as gracious as Tiny Tina.
After these awesome displays of freakishness we came across this......
This little show billed itself as "The Museum of World Oddities"
The beautiful carnival banners had me practically drooling...........
Of note, their Fiji Mermaid sign actually depicted the mermaid in its creepy form, not the deceptive "beautiful women" form.
And they do not disappoint.....
Let's run down the exhibits in this wonderful little museum.
The "World's Largest Women" appears in fiberglass form locked in some weird box.
Fair goers crowded around a little coffin underneath a banner promising the legendary Chupacabra.....
Through the greasy foggy glass you can make out the form of the legendary creature.......
I apologize for the lower quality of these pictures, but I have to point out that the glass in these freak show tents is always covered with this weird milky film.
And of course we have our assortment of weird things in jars......
We have a boy mummy.....
Some assorted mummified pygmies.....
A couple of shrunken heads.....
And a er....decapitated head......
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| Yep |
And now the collection of two headed animals....
We have a two headed chicken, WITH a two headed egg.......
A two headed lamb....
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| Adorable |
Two different two headed cows.....
And they had one of the strangest collections of Crypto-taxidermy I have ever seen.....
Here is a half fox, half dog......
A Rabadillo......
A Turtlelope.....
The world's smallest deer.....
The world's smallest Monkies.......
And this thing......which looks like it has the head of a racoon and the body of something else. I'm not sure, there was no sign......
And then there was what appeared to be a mongoose battling two Cobras inside a disco ball.......
Here is wolf boy.....
Here is the classic "Devil Fish": a sting ray turned upside down and modified to resemble a monster....
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| Where have I seen you before? |
Note the disclaimer.....
This disclaimer is necessary, as the exhibit can presented as educational and therefore cannot be seen as exploitative and ghoulish. Drug abuse could lead to horrible things, such as your baby being born with facial deformities....
Being born with no legs and having its head fall off......
and roll next to the elephant skinned baby......
Or be born with two heads....
Man, those are pretty gross.
Anyways, sweet dreams.............
For more Freak Show Goodness check out my previous post HERE.
The Carpetbagger
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