Word: livestock
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...simple. You pay your $1.50 and walk through the 50-ft. metal gateway poles hung with red-and-blue banners. You leave behind inflation, traffic jams, Watergate and the impending struggle of the autumn harvest. Ahead of you, the Ferris wheel arcs into the blue sky over beyond the livestock barns; a lemon-shake stand squeezes between a tractor exhibit and the milking parlor; on your left, the Pleasantville Community School stage band is warming up for a concert, and over there, an hour from now, the quilt-making demonstrations will begin. Pick up some cotton candy along...
...says Fair Director Ken Fulk. "In fact, it's a mecca." Mecca indeed. This year the 400 acres of fairgrounds in Des Moines have attracted nearly 650,000 visitors in ten days. Farm families from Iowa towns like Burlington, Belle Plaine, Indianola and Clearfield come to show their livestock, spend a few dollars on the midway, ogle the new farm machinery and see what their neighbors' hogs look like...
...sinks and the livestock barns take on deeper shadows, the crowds drift toward the midway-the merry-go-round, the octopus, the roller coaster and dozens of unnamed rides that promise squeals of terror. Bottle-and coin-toss games offer stuffed animals, drinking glasses and table lamps as prizes. Off to the side, barkers bellow the fascinations of a 500 look at the three-legged man, the two-headed baby and the incredible snake girl. And the burlesque show: "Come on in closer, folks. We're going to offer you some entertainment, spice-wise. Yessir, we have nudity...
Soon after midnight, it is over for the day. Young farm boys drag themselves back to the livestock pens to sleep on aluminum lounges beside their hogs or sheep or cattle, while their parents catch the last shuttle back up the hill to where the family camper is parked. Even the midway finally shuts down, and an unaccustomed calm falls over the fairgrounds. Fairgoers somehow find their cars in the mammoth parking lot, load in the family and drive out the gates back to their own lives. Out side the fair, there are harder choices than whether...
...increase in livestock prices is a major reason why the net income of America's farmers leaped from $16.9 billion in 1969 to $20.3 billion last year and will reach an expected $23 billion this year. Indeed, there has been a historic shift in the nation's income. As consumers have paid more and more for food, they have shifted increasing sums of money out of their pockets and into the pockets of farmers and ranchers. In 1958, the average American ate 80.5 lbs. of beef. Last year he ate 115.9 lbs. Helped by this enormous demand, farmers...