State Fair by Phil Stong

First published: 1932

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Regional romance

Time of work: Early 1930’s

Locale: Iowa

Principal Characters:

• Abel Frake, a prosperous farmer
• Melissa Frake, his wife
• Wayne, his son
• Margy, his daughter
• Eleanor, Wayne’s friend
• Harry Ware, Margy’s friend
• Emily, a girl Wayne met at the fair
• Pat Gilbert, a newspaperman
• The Storekeeper, a local philosopher
• Blue Boy, a prize boar

The Story

Abel Frake knew that this year Blue Boy would be judged the finest boar at the state fair. As he discussed his hog with the men loafing in the store one Saturday night, he found the storekeeper as pessimistic as usual.

The storekeeper believed that something intangible was always working to see that things did not go too well for most people. What it was he could not exactly say, but he was willing to bet Abel five dollars that it would either keep him from winning the blue ribbon or let him win because some other catastrophe would occur later. Abel, accustomed to the storekeeper’s gloom, went home with his confidence in Blue Boy unshaken.

As Abel and his wife, Melissa, made plans for the next day’s start for the fair, their son and daughter were not so carefree. Wayne was with Eleanor, home from her first year in college, but she was changed. Before she went away, she had always been his girl; now she did not want to be committed to any promises for the future. Wayne drove home in gloomy silence. When he pulled into the farmyard, he found his sister Margy and Harry Ware sitting in his convertible. Harry was begging Margy to marry him as soon as she came home from the fair. Margy, like Eleanor, did not know whether it was Harry she wanted.

Sunday was spent in making last-minute preparations for their departure. Melissa checked the jars of pickles she intended to exhibit at the fair. Abel could do nothing except groom Blue Boy.

That evening, they started out in the farm truck. The pickles and Blue Boy were given most consideration in the packing, for they were to win honors for the family. Abel drove all night and reached the fairgrounds in Des Moines on Monday morning. Blue Boy was taken at once to the stock pavilion, and the family set up their tent in an area reserved for fair visitors.

As soon as Wayne could get away, he went to the fairgrounds to look for a barker who had cheated him the year before. During the past year, Wayne had practiced throwing hoops, and he almost cleaned out the barker before he stopped throwing. When the barker threatened to call the police, a girl who had been watching called his bluff and walked away with Wayne. Her name was Emily; she was the daughter of a stock-show manager. She and Wayne visited other booths together. In the afternoon, they went to the horse races, and Emily won some money for them to spend.

While Wayne was busy with Emily, Margy strolled around the fairgrounds and looked at the exhibits. That night, she and Wayne planned to visit the midway, but they became separated, and Margy went on alone. On the roller coaster, she met Pat Gilbert, a reporter for a Des Moines paper. Margy found that she could talk easily with Pat.

On Wednesday, Melissa’s pickles won three blue ribbons. A photographer, who was with Pat, took pictures of Melissa and Margy. Neither Wayne nor Margy had told their family about their new friends, and Margy had to pretend that she did not see Pat at the exhibit. As soon as she could get away, she and Pat went again to the roller coaster. As they walked back to the tent grounds that night, they stopped in a grassy spot that was hidden from the walks and paths. Pat took Margy in his arms and kissed her, and she gave herself to him willingly.

On Thursday, the most important event was the judging of the hogs. Although Abel was nervous and at times had doubts of his victory, he was not really much surprised when Blue Boy had the blue ribbon pinned on his stall. The judges declared him the finest boar they had ever seen, and from then on, the fair was over for Abel. In fact, the judging over, he and Melissa had little interest in the remainder of the week.

That evening, Wayne and Emily went to a stage show in the city, and Wayne thought it the most wonderful show he had ever seen. Afterward, Emily took Wayne to her hotel room and gave him a drink of whiskey. He had never tasted liquor before; it gave him a wonderful, warm feeling inside. Emily went into another room to change from her evening gown. Wayne was not surprised when she returned wearing only a thin kimono. He had known what to expect when he had gone to the hotel with her.

On Friday evening, Pat asked Margy to marry him right away. He loved her and wanted to keep her with him. She knew, however, that a marriage between them would never work. Pat was restless and wanted to see the world. He thought now that he would gladly settle down in Des Moines for the rest of his life if he could have Margy with him, but she knew that he would grow restless again and be unhappy with her. When she told him goodbye, she knew she would not see him again.

That same night, Wayne told Emily that he loved her and asked her to marry him and go back to the farm with him. Emily also refused. She, like Pat, could never stand quiet life on the farm. She was not a wild girl, but she still wanted to enjoy the pleasures of youth.

The next morning, the family packed their truck and went back home. On Sunday, Eleanor and Harry came to dinner as though nothing had happened that made this Sunday different from any other. The storekeeper drove out and paid his five dollars to Abel, conceding that nothing would happen in the next two months to make him win the bet. Yet, as he looked at Wayne and Margy, he smiled, as if he saw that something had already happened.

Critical Evaluation:

Reviews of STATE FAIR during the months following its publication in 1932 were unquestionably favorable. Critics agreed that Phil Stong drew an accurate picture of Midwestern life, especially as it related to that much revered event, the state fair. Stong was praised for his vivid descriptions of characters, young and old, and his ability to produce a novel that was robust and entertaining. Slight mention was made of the fact that there is no great depth or moral to the story beyond the dime store bits of philosophy espoused by the storekeeper. Reviewers at the time seemed to agree that Stong brought a certain degree of “city-slicker’s knowingness and humor” to his sound understanding of farming life in Iowa. The novel is saved from being purely sentimental and superficially structured by Stong’s style, which is full of assurance, ease, and grace.

One cannot help but notice the tight symmetry of STATE FAIR. The novel revolves around a week which includes a five-day trip by car to Des Moines for the great “kermess.” The Frake family is as closely knit as the novel itself. The four family members are constantly referring to what it means to be Frake and how their strength, inner conviction, and endurance help them to achieve all their goals. Mama is painfully committed to her pickles, and father Abel to his fattened, prizewinning boar, Blue Boy. Each character is sketched briefly but carefully early in the novel, to be picked up at greater length later in the book as he or she relates his experiences at the fair. Both Wayne and Margy, the young teenagers, leave sweethearts at home on the farm the night before they depart for the fair, and both have had an altercation of some sort with their sweethearts. The fair is a turning point for all the Frakes, and it transports the mother and father to glory that only prizewinning pickles and champion hogs can bring. The fair supplies Wayne and Margy with some exciting interludes, including a little behind-the-exhibits sex and perhaps some maturity. Margy meets Pat, the man-about-town newspaper reporter who makes her head spin and who wants to marry her at week’s end. Margy, however, true to Frake form, realizes her allegiance to the farm and the life it offers and knows that Pat would soon be discontented. On the other hand, Wayne is wooed and seduced by the redheaded Emily who shows him how to bet on horses, dine fashionably in Des Moines, and take in the theater with style. Wayne falls for Emily in much the same way that Pat falls for Margy, but to no avail here either, for Emily also realizes that farm life is not for her. She anticipates many more experiences before she plans to settle down. Wayne and Margy learn much about life in general, and their goals in particular during that short week. They both return home to their former sweethearts, having taken some risks, suffered a little, but having grown a great deal.

The storekeeper’s pessimism is apparent from the beginning of the novel when he says that all good is necessarily followed by some bad. In the end, one is found reflecting, momentarily at least, as to whether that is always true. For in the case of Wayne and Margy Frake, their salutary dip into pleasure brought them a week’s worth of exhilarating happiness and fond memories that renewed their dedication to farm life.