State Fair caption contest #1: Weighing meat
We can pretend the Minnesota State Fair is all about butter princesses, deep-fried stuff on a stick and hogs the size of Mini Coopers, but deep down, you know it's all about the people-watching. The Minnesota Historical Society has hundreds of great photos featuring fair-goers, carnies and vendors from fairs past.
I had the opportunity to flip through a thousand or so of them for a recent Joe Kimball story and plucked a few out that screamed for a caption contest.
Here's the first entry:

MHS is pretty vague on the details (the photo was shot in 1947) — just "two people weighing meat." Are they in the ag building, a young apprentice learning the art of butchery? A father and son making sausages at a church dining hall?
Here are my captions. Maybe I'll pick a winner and send you a case of sausages or something. I said maybe!
"Kid, someday all this 'making sausages at the Minnesota State Fair' will be yours!"
"I said put yer thumb on the scale, not your whole arm, ya idiot!"
"The year was 1947, and big sleeves, ear pencils and piles of sausage were all the rage."
"The staring contest by the bratwurst scale was a top fair attraction until the rock-paper-scissors invitational in the pig barn captured Minnesotans' hearts."
"That was my father's behind-the-ear pencil... and now it's yours."
Submit your captions in the comments section below...
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Comments (10)
"Dad! I was just jumping rope with these brats in the back. Here, lemme show you my skillz."
"Christ, Bobby, you'll never amount to nothin'."
"Hey, dad, How about we jam that pencil into the wiener, then dip it in dough? That'd be swell."
"Christ, Bobby, you'll never amount to nothin'."
How about:
"Boy, and I thought MY haircut was bad."
"Young Bobby here is going to be first person in the free world to try out the incredible 'sausage toilet.'"
"It's called a 'com-pu-ter' Billy. Soon everyone will be using one."
"Why you gotta wear such a big coat, Mr. Wilkins?"
"Son, do you like pork shoulder?"
"You ever been inside a Turkish prison, Billy?"
Bobby, you did such an amazing job casing those weiners! I'm going to introduce you to my friend Sid Hartman.
Sorry, when I heard that barber was nicknamed "the butcher"... I thought it meant he liked meatcutters.
"Hey Bobby, the photographer is here. Lets stare at each other with some funky faces for the picture. Then in 60 years people can make fun of us!"