A Good Time at the Fair

It is that time of year again. Fall is probably my favorite season because it brings so many wonderful things. The start of a new school year, the harvesting of crops, the changing landscape with fall colors in the trees and then the falling leaves.

I always enjoyed getting back to school and reuniting with my friends. Summers gave me the freedom I enjoyed, but I often lost contact with my close schoolmates. It took a couple of weeks to get used to my schedule and the new routine, but everything soon fell into place. Did you ever notice how pleasant and pretty the teachers were those first few weeks? By the end of the school year, they seemed to have aged and taken on a much gruffer attitude.

In our area we don’t have a great deal of farming and the crops that we do have often are harvested before the hot dry weather kills everything, but one crop we have in abundance is hay. Acre after acre of sweet grasses are grown, mowed and rolled into big bales.


When I was young, the hay was compacted in rectangular bales small enough for a man, or strong boy in many cases, to pick up and toss on a large hay wagon. Today, the hay is rolled into huge cylinders that have to be hoisted by tractors with hydraulic lifts.

We are fortunate in East Texas to have the thick forested landscape. Most of the trees are evergreens, but we also have oaks, maples, and dogwoods, to name just a few. Their leaves turn with the first frosts and dress the rolling land. Brown, gold, rusty red and other colors join with the green shades to decorate the hillsides. I have spent numerous lazy Sunday afternoons driving along the back roads admiring nature’s artwork.

Holidays and other occasions for celebration also come with the fall season. Football provides the entire family a chance to get together with friends and have fun. In recent years tailgate parties before the games have become popular activities. I have a lot of trouble though with the fall allergies and then cold weather. The older I get the harder it is to enjoy sitting out in near freezing weather.

Labor Day leads us to Halloween and then Thanksgiving and on to Christmas. We gather and eat too much, and then are forced to go on a diet to lose the resulting pounds. By the time we lose a couple of pounds, it is time for another get together. September and October also bring us our county and state fairs.

This week the crews began erecting the many rides and booths for the Gregg County Fair. I remember going as a small kid with my parents. It was exciting and frightening all at the same time with the noise and crowds. My family especially enjoyed the animals that were displayed and judged. The best animals were awarded ribbons and a chance to go to the State Fair. The food booths were also a particular favorite of ours and I can still taste the corn dogs and funnel cake.

I didn’t partake of the rides and other activities at the County Fair until I was a teenager. Unlike today, there weren’t that many different rides. It reminded me of the rides at our Halloween Carnival. This year the organizers are boasting to have the most rides in the fair’s history.

It seems to me, with my limited memory, that the local fair was only three or four days long when I first attended. Starting on Thursday, and ending either Saturday evening or perhaps Sunday afternoon. This year the officials have announced that the Gregg County Fair will be in full swing for eight days. I guess they will have more time to make a profit.

But by far, my parents loved the State Fair of Texas the most. Dad just called it The Fair. For a long time I thought Texas invented the concept of having a fair. Almost every year we would go to Dallas, rent a motel room and stay for two days. The Fair was too grand to experience everything in just one day.


Have you ever been to the fair and wandered through all of the animal stalls housing pigs, sheep, dairy cows, beef cattle, and of course the prized bulls and sleek horses? Dad had lived on a dairy farm during the depression and knew everything there was to know about the underside of a milk cow. He said he learned it first hand.

Mother liked the Women’s Building with cooking and sewing contests, displays of the latest cooking utensils as well as new revolutionary appliances. I saw a television for the first time as a man spoke before a small audience and explained how the magical box operated. Dad was skeptical that the invention would ever become popular, but he also said that the American consumer would buy any fool thing if their neighbors had one.

Everyone loved the Automobile Building. I was too young to drive, of course, but I found it was the base for many dreams as I grew older. Mother almost fainted when she saw a demonstration for an air conditioned car and felt the cool air filling the interior. Two years after that demonstration, Dad bought her a new car equipped with the best air conditioner available. The cooling unit was housed in the trunk and plastic tubes came up beside the back window and led to overhead vents.


My brother was ten years older than me, so he got to go to the Midway alone to enjoy the games and rides. My sister was stuck with me for the first two years when I was allowed to chance the rides. She tried her best to lose me in the bustling crowd, but I managed to stay close to her. Finally, one year our high school band attended Band Day, and I got to have fun without my sister chaperoning me.

After my wife and I married and started our family, we weren’t able to go very often. A couple of times my mother volunteered to babysit so we could go, but it had gotten so expensive that we had to spread out our trips and prioritize our monies. Such was the joy of working in education.

I’m not sure if we will go to the Gregg County Fair this year, but we do plan to attend The Fair. If the weather is nice and we can sneak away, we may attend on Senior Citizens Day. I like taking advantage of the reduced rates. Whether we need the help or not, I have gotten to the point where I am proud of being older and enjoy any advantages the condition affords.

So, if you go to The Fair and see an old bald-headed man walking around wide-eyed with a big awestruck grin, you can be assured that I got in at a discount and am in the throes of my second childhood. See you at The Fair.