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County Fair - By Randy Kraft |
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Each summer in the 1950s we went to the Orange County Fair. The fairgrounds were next to Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa. Almost all the grounds, except near the major buildings, were unpaved and bare dirt, and the outer reaches were acres of fields for parking. In the late 1960s or early 1970s the parking area became home to a perpetual Sunday swap meet.
When fair time rolled around each year, I got excited about the midway with its games and carnival rides. Prior to 1956 there was no Disneyland, and the County Fair was the biggest and best assortment of attractions. When we arrived, Mom and Dad and I, the midway was always our first stop, and the first thing was to stop at a souvenir stand by the entrance. Each year I got a pin-on button, about 1½" in diameter, that said Orange County Fair and had a colorful ribbon extending below it, like a prize ribbon. I had several on the wall of my room at home, and each year my collection grew.
I liked the horse race game, where, by operating one of many pinball-like devices, your horse moved across an electronic board that was the backdrop of the booth. I played this game every year. It wasn’t the most popular game, and some years I had to wait around until there were enough people to play and compete. Usually I won a small, plastic horse, never a major prize. I liked the ferris wheel, tilt-a-whirl, carousel, and games like the dart-throw at balloons and the penny/hoop toss. However, when I was young I did not like rides that gave a sudden drop or turned you upside-down, like the octopus or the hammer. I finally went on the Hammer as a dare, and I lost all the change in my pockets, but I was so dazed at the finish I didn't know it. As an adult I grew to love those rides and roller-coasters, too, but not as a child. Just walking the midway was fun, eating cotton candy and ice cream. One year they had helicopter rides, and Mom wanted to try it, so we all went together. It was neat, basically an up and down sort of thing that gave a brief panoramic view of the fair.
The livestock was right next to the midway, and we walked through there briefly to see the animals. One year we discovered someone selling goat’s milk ice cream. It was super good, and we returned the next years to find it again and again.
The agriculture and crafts buildings were not very interesting—row After row of green beans or squash, or quilts and crochet-- but the prize ribbons blue, white and red, were exciting to see.
The home show building was a major destination each year. Mom and Dad liked to see the products available for sale, and I liked the samples of food that some vendors handed out. Each year near the entrance there was a vacuum cleaner display, and a plastic beach ball was kept rolling in mid-air by one of the machines. The show was always crowded, and the hubbub of people, and of machines being demonstrated, was exciting and invigorating. Most of the products we just ogled as we walked up and down the three or four aisles: recliner/ vibrator chairs, slice-and-dice kitchen gizmos, cubic zirconium’s, blenders, steam irons, freezers, a radar range (that Dad said had no future), swimming pools, and fallout shelters. Yes, there was a company that would install one underground in your backyard, and there at the Home Show was a mock-up you could walk into, sort of try it on. Over the years, Mom and Dad did buy several things: a set of Encyclopedia Britannica (the year before I entered high school), a water softener for our home, a Filter Queen vacuum, and a Chemex drip coffee maker.
One exhibit I particularly liked, and it was typically the last one we visited, was the Gem Show. Examining the different shapes and colors of stones on display was fascinating for me. It is where I first saw a tiger's eye stone, and the rich brown and golden hue was mesmerizing. The opals were neat, too, particularly since that was Mom’s name.
Typically we arrived at the fair around noon and stayed until dark. It was a long day, and we all ended up with tired feet from walking and standing the whole time, but it was fun nonetheless.
© 2006 Randy Kraft
All Right Reserved
Transcribed By Jan DeMille |
#1 |
on December 17 2007 5:12 PM
#2 |
on December 17 2007 8:14 PM
#3 |
on December 18 2007 7:16 PM
#4 |
on December 18 2007 7:45 PM
#5 |
on January 18 2008 1:40 PM
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