The Neshoba County Fair after hours

Jennifer Jacob
jjacob@themeridianstar.com

2008 was my first year to visit the Neshoba County Fair, and I have to admit that during the daytime it was not my cup of tea. My main gripe - it was just too hot and humid. I tried to visit cabins and enjoy company and food, and there were plenty of both, but the blazing sunlight was so oppressive I just didn't enjoy either. My brain and my body were both in going in slow motion, and just the idea of consuming hot food in the already killer heat was completely out of the question. I met some interesting people, but I couldn't help thinking that I'd rather have met them somewhere cooler, less dirty, somewhere that didn't smell like livestock.

The Neshoba County Fair at night was a much nicer experience. With the sun absent and the temperature down I was able to focus on the company and unique fair culture rather than how uncomfortable I was. The fair at night is like an entire small town with 600 different parties going on, side by side, at once.

I spent Wednesday evening at the cabin of Neshoba County musician Daniel Sharp and his family. Meridianites may have heard Daniel and David Lauderdale play at the Echo Lounge as "All Around Hounds". But no one was playing guitar or singing at Daniel's cabin that night - they were too busy playing cacho.

Cacho is a Bolivian dice game brought to Neshoba County by two former Peace Corps workers. I'm not sure exactly how the game works, but I'm told that Yahtzee is loosely based on it, and I know that cacho players take it very seriously. During the tournament at Daniel's cabin Wednesday, the players were virtually unaware of everything that was happening around them - their minds were on winning the tournament. The party at their cabin was far from alcohol-free, but the cacho players seemed not to notice the people hollering and falling down around them. If they weren't rolling dice, they may as well have not been there.

The people who had already lost the tournament were a bit more interesting to non-cacho players like myself. At least as hospitable as the people I met during the daytime, no one at Daniel's cabin treated anyone else like a stranger, and everyone went out of their way to make sure everyone else was comfortable and content.

I found the fair at night to be much more relaxed than during the day. The heat was beaten, the huge meals eaten, and everyone was ready to relax and have fun.