(September 10, 2025) As autumn nears the arrival of various county fairs coming to towns happen across the south. When I used to live up north this was a late summer affair, but I’ve always assumed waiting for the southern heat to cool made more sense to push things back below the Mason-Dixon line. With schools back in session that also means upcoming Harvest and Halloween festivals for the kids. Growing up this was favorite time of the year! One of my favorite memories was going to these festivals and fairs and playing various carnival games. I wasn’t any good at it, but I can clearly remember my Dad playing vintage Digger machines (like a claw machine) and winning over-sized dice and lighters at the fair! Over the years I had few stuffed animals and prize mirrors with a rock and roll band printed across the front, feathered roach clips (those were for you hair, right?) – but one prize I never seemed to acquire as a kid was the coveted (to me at least) CARNIVAL CANE!

Carnival canes were basically cheap prizes that consisted of a brightly painted wooden dowel rod with a handle at the end. These were often won by throwing a ring around the canes as they were standing up vertically on a wooden table with holes drilled on top to hold them up. In the past these canes could be quite ornate with really cool looking ceramic handles shaped like Indian heads, baseballs, dogs, dice, and more! But by the time I came around in the late 70s and early 80s to play, these were just wooden handles that had been turned on a lathe – at least in my area!