A Town Called Mooreland: A Day in the Life of a Girl Named Zippy

"No event was more important than the Mooreland Fair, and no one was more honored than the Queen, so the year my sister ran for Fair Queen, 1972, I broke open my piggy bank to put all my money in the decorated coffee can that sat in front of her picture in the Big Tent at the entrance to the fair. The queen was decided by a process called "a-penny-a-vote," which was modeled on democracy but confused with capitalism, and thus was successful, as processes go."
-- Haven Kimmel, A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana"

I, my friends, spent last Saturday at the Mooreland Free Fair -- the most important event in Mooreland -- nay, in all of Henry County! -- and I -- I took my pennies and voted for my Fair Queen favorite. Are you jealous? Because I think maybe you should be.


Saturday was a beautiful day -- the most beautiful all week! -- so Blake and I dragged our friends, the Paulsen's, with us to go to Mooreland for some fair festivities (They came willingly, mind you. After reading Zippy, Sarah was even very excited to go! ...But of course, how could she not be? It's Mooreland, after all.)

First we went to the parade where we were thrown more than our fair share of parade candy (it helped to have two small children sitting with us) and saw more than our fair share of tractors, fire engines, and creative religious floats (we were reminded several times of the beauty of praising the Lord). Small-town parades are funny, and I would hope that everyone gets a chance to attend one at least once in their lifetime. Most of the entries are nothing more than free advertisements for the towns' small businesses, and it's apparent that the float budgets are microscopic (one float was nothing more than a bare flatbed truck, on which stood an old wooden outhouse, which was probably just grabbed from someone's backyard, followed closely by an olive green toilet, which was also probably just grabbed from someone's backyard...somehow this entry had something to do with the theme of "Our Changing Times," and I'm pretty sure there were some religious undertones).The parade was where I was first introduced to the Fair Queen candidates. They all wore their prom dresses and had probably had their hair done that morning at the Cut 'n Curl. Each one sat in the back of their sponsor's (ie. their dad's) car, jeep, or truck and waved, blew kisses, and threw candy to entice a high voter turnout. Well, they sure won me over because later in the big pavilion I forked over all three pennies I had with me to vote for one of them...though I can't remember which girl I picked.

The fair itself was mildly disappointing because the one thing I was willing to spend money on (besides the Fair Queen vote) was a ride on the ferris wheel. But they didn't have a ferris wheel this year. Very sad. Oh, they had those "ferris wheels" (if you can call them that) that spin upside down and every other which way, but I wasn't about to pay someone to make me throw up. So instead we walked up and down the midway and briefly considered throwing away money to win a rabbit.

Because you can't go to Mooreland without paying homage to some important Zippy sites, we stopped for a picture at the Welcome to Mooreland sign, as well as at the Mooreland Friends Church. We think that this time we were able to spot Zippy's house, but we're still not sure if we picked the right one. It turns out that Blake has the fortunate luck to work with a lady who grew up with Zippy and sat next to her in math class and also took English from her mom. Here are a few lesser known Zippy facts that you may be interested in adding to your stash of useless-but-interesting trivia:

• Zippy was born Betsy Jarvis. Kimmel is her married name, and I suppose that Haven is a pen name.
• She has a very pleasant voice (as does her mother),
• And she herself is a very pleasant, happy person.

From what I gather, the citizens of Mooreland are proud of their Betsy Jarvis, though a good number of them still haven't read her memoirs. (But it's a small town, so I suppose it's excusable.)

After we wore Mooreland out, we drove down the road to see where Wilber Wright was born. We would have toured his home as well as the barn-turned-museum, but we arrived literally two minutes too late, so instead we snapped a photo and marked it on the books that we were there.

So there's Mooreland for you. I wish I could invite you all to come with us next year, but I don't think we'll still be in the area. Sometimes I get a little wistful when I think that we'll have to leave this part of the country before the Mooreland Free Fair rolls around again. *sigh* Well, at least I can count myself as one of the privileged few who have read Zippy's stories and lived them (in part) as well! (Lucky me!)

(For more pictures of the events mentioned above, please click here.)