Daughter feasts on District Fair pretzels

Gone are the cattle and draft horses. Gone are the blue ribbons, the carnival rides and the cotton candy.

Gone too is Tilly, the pretzel lady at the Southeast Missouri District Fair.

Our 13-year-old, Becca, loves pretzels.

She's addicted to the doughy treat.

She visited the pretzel stand so much last week that by the end of the fair she was on a first-name basis with the pretzel lady.

Tilly, who is from Pinckneyville, Ill., confided that Becca was her best customer.

For Becca, who as alert readers know is a picky eater, to rave about fair food is a major accomplishment.

And when it comes to pretzels, Becca is selective.

She abhors run-of-the-mill pretzels.

She likes the homemade kind, not the standard, factory product.

I expect Tilly will be back at the fair next year.

It's hard to say no to such a goodwill ambassador like Becca.

She tried to convince Tilly -- her real name is Chantelle -- to open a pretzel shop in Cape Girardeau.

But so far Tilly isn't ready to permanently parade out pretzels in our fine city.

So Becca will just have to wait until next year's fair to once again fill up on Tilly's pretzels. We're not planning to move to Pinckneyville no matter how good the pretzels are.

Becca ate so many pretzels at the fair that Tilly gave her a free one. I'm surprised Becca didn't volunteer to work behind the counter just so she could be around all those pretzels.

Some people went to the fairgrounds to view the livestock, attend the concerts or meander around the antique tractors.

But none of that stuff rated as highly as the pretzels in Becca's view.

Even the carnival rides took a backseat to this culinary treat.

History tells us that monks in southern Europe baked the first pretzels as a reward for children who learned their prayers.

Its shape represented the crossed arms of a child praying.

Pretzel comes from the Latin word, "pretiola," meaning a small reward.

But Becca views a really good pretzel as a huge reward. She'd rather have that than a good steak.

She would have been right at home with all those pretzel-making monks.

History also tells us that pretzel bakers in Vienna left their kitchens to help defeat invading Turks in 1510. But there's no evidence that they pummeled the invaders with pretzels.

It's believed pretzels made it to America aboard the Mayflower in the 17th century. Enterprising colonists sold pretzels to the Indians, creating what may have been the first fair food.

It's great to know that this salty German biscuit can have such an enormous impact on a teenager.

Except for the telephone, there's probably nothing that draws such positive attention from Becca as a quality pretzel.

It's amazing that a girl with such a limited appetite can consume pretzel after pretzel without feeling full.

I've never been particularly fond of pretzels, no matter how rich their history.

But when your teenager is a virtual ambassador for pretzels, it's impossible even amid the jungle of other fair food to ignore Tilly's pretzel stand.

Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.