Monday, September 12, 2005

Fair Time

Its State Fair days in New Mexico. Opening Day of the fair was Friday Sept 9th and it goes through Sept 25th. This time of year always reminds me of much simpler times when I was a child. We went to the Arizona state fair once when we were first married. Maybe its the fact that it was October and it was
still over 100 degrees. Or maybe its that there was no sight of green grass anywhere, just cement, or maybe its that it was a state fair in the Southwest, and us growing up in the Northwest in small rural communities were spoiled by our county and state fairs. We went to the New Mexico state fair the first year we were here. Our son was 10 months old. It was fun to go and see how it was different, but still, not really as I remember it was when we were kids.

When we were growing up, the county fair was always the last week of August. And the first week of school followed the next week. My parents would pick one day during the week of fair and take my brothers and I. We would go early in the morning. Going with my parents it was a requirement that we had to go through all the booths before we could go ride the rides. We might have said that we didn't like going through all the booths but we didn't mind THAT much. A lot of my friends were in 4-H or FFA. So we'd wander through all the animal barns and run into a lot of our friends with their sheep, pigs, cows, chickens, etc. Some had already won ribbons, some had been sold at auction. It was fun to be able to see them after not seeing them all summer. We'd go through the commercial buildings, get bags full of "free gifts". (It was really just things they gave away to advertise their product, but we were naive kids, we were just happy to get something for free). After the commercial buildings we'd go to the craft buildings and the agriculture buildings. We always had to go to the craft buildings because my mom often entered different things she had done. This is where they would display quilts, home sewn cloths, porcelian dolls, toll-painted crafts etc. Mom always won ribbons on her things. The agriculture building was fun because this is where they would display the largest vegetables competition. The tallest sunflower, the largest pumpkin, tomato, squash, watermelon, whatever people could find that they were proud of. The most beautiful jar of canned peaches etc. In this building the different FFA groups from around the region displayed their seed/grain arts. Every year they were assigned a different theme and they would create this huge 10 ft square picture created using only grain and seeds. It was really cool to see all the different colors portrayed with seeds and grain. Once we were done with all the buildings and booths then we could go to the food court and the rides. The food was worth it all by itself. Things that you could only get once a year. Elephant Ears (they're big scones covered in cinnamon sugar), Turkey Bobs (marinated turkey breast Kabobs. Interested? I have the recipe!), and Piggley Wiggley Fries!. And numerous other things to make you sick. Then there was the rides! Always a good chance of puking on a ride after eating all that food.

As we got older we still set aside AT LEAST one day to go to the fair. But this time it was meeting with friends (or boyfriends) and hang out all day. We'd still go through all the booths just to try to catch a glimpse of a friend or two, and the food was tradition. But its seems to me that as teenagers the only place we wanted to be was around all the rides. Since fair week was always the week before school, we'd want to wear our new school clothes.

Even in college, we'd go to the Idaho State Fair in Blackfoot, Idaho. That was a great state fair, a lot of animals and agriculture. Now that we're married, and we've attended the state fair in Arizona and New Mexico it just doesn't seem to be as great as it once was. Maybe its that we've realized how dang expensive everything is, maybe its that there isn't as many animals and agriculture as there was in the Northwest. We don't ride the rides now.

I hope to take my kids to the fair this year. They're still very young. Almost 3 and 1 is too young for the rides. But they'll enjoy seeing the animals I'm sure. Maybe the fair will become something we enjoy again as we see our children experiencing it. We might as well start them out young, so it becomes a tradition and something to look forward to all year just as it was when we were children.

Posted by ABQ Mom :: 9/12/2005 12:31:00 PM :: 6 Comments:

Post a Comment

---------------------------------------