HomeTown – 07 – Demolition

I’m not a farmer, in any sense of the word. I’ve never driven a tractor, milked a cow, tended a field. Yet for much of my life, I lived in a rural community. But Milton does stick to its small-town roots and one of the biggest ways that show is the fall fair. The Fall Fair is a local icon, the animals, the arts, crafts, and baked goods. The midway, salespeople, but the biggest part of it for me is the Demolition Derby. This might come as a surprise but I love a good demolition derby. There’s just something about having car on car destruction. The demolition derby also is something I would always go to on the Saturday night with my dad and my brother once he was born and old enough. Cheering on a car, having the announcer play Europe’s The Final Countdown before the winner’s heat. Eventually, even my brother entered a car twice and helping out with that. And more recently attending a Sunday Afternoon derby with the whole family including my wife, mom, brother, sister-in-law, dad, and two nieces. Yeah, the thrill is still there many years on. And you know, it’s hard to capture an event that isn’t going on and won’t be going on for several months in the future from when this photo was taken. And when there are no events, I wasn’t even sure I could get onto the fairgrounds. But the grandstand is the iconic part that looks over the demolition derby pit, but for the good view, you have to be as close as possible. Enough to smell the mud, metal, and oil.