“In Search of the Corn Queen”
These two gals are all gussied up for the Cairo (pronounced by locals as “we don’t care-o”), Illinois River Days festival in 1990, but they don’t look too excited about it. Touted as “America’s most depressing city” by www.cyburbia.org, it wouldn’t be farfetched to assume these gals got the heck out of dodge before the millennium ended. More recent images from 2008 show what downtown has become.
However, if you simply travel 21 miles north to Ullin, Illinois, you can witness the beauty pageant held at their modern-day River Days, which is still going strong.
2015 Cache River Days, facebook
And these Little Miss Sunshines, having traded tights and tap shoes for strappy sandals, seem a lot more excited about it.
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Great work!!!!
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🙂
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Sadly a lot of towns have gone the way of Cairo. As for beauty pageants for kids, I am at best ambivalent. Nice pics though.
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Probably not a good idea to be sexualizing little kids and getting them focused on beauty.
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Yep. That and some of the adults can get crazy.
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Yes, talking about living vicariously!
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We drove through downtown Cairo (some pronounce it kay-ro) while on vacation last year. It is depressing, but you can see how beautiful it must have been.
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That’s a great documentary photograph that first one. It definitely suggests a narrative I think. What an awfully depressed place that is.
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Truth.
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Sorry to hear about Cairo. It was a nice little town.
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