County (or State) Fair- Page 2

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/19/07 at 10:31am

"always getting a pet chameleon, and having them always sadly die."

Our county fair had a game where you would throw a ping pong ball into a small goldfish bowl. If you got the ping pong ball in, you got the goldfish. I haven't seen that game in a few years, so the PETA people must have had it shut down.

I remember in the 1970s being mad because the "walk away sundaes" didn't have cherries because of the red dye scare.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 6/19/07 at 10:37am

I remember wanting to shoot Kathryn Crosby at State Fair...and if I missed her, I was going to go for Andrea McArdle.

My exroommate and i would make a pilgrimage to the Sandwich Fair in Sandwich, NH. We adored it...Columbus Day, my birthday and the fair.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/19/07 at 10:40am

"I remember wanting to shoot Kathryn Crosby at State Fair...and if I missed her, I was going to go for Andrea McArdle."

You need to shoot the producers. Donna McKechnie is a great performer, but at 50+ playing Emily Arden was more like playing Mrs. Robinson.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 6/19/07 at 10:41am

Actually, she was far and away the highlight.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/19/07 at 10:47am

"Actually, she was far and away the highlight."

You mean you didn't like McArdle belting "It Might As Well Be Spring" as if it were an 11 o'clock number?

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 6/19/07 at 10:57am

McArdle should've sent a cardboard cutout instead.
Katharine Crosby should've sent a jar of preserves in her stead.

Actually John Davidson and Ben Wright were quite good.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/19/07 at 11:08am

"McArdle should've sent a cardboard cutout instead."

In the performance I saw, I think she did. Finally, Susan Egan gave McArdle a little push, causing her to break her ankle, and that problem was taken care of.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 6/19/07 at 11:09am

I love McArdle's voice, however, and she looks great these days (we're the same age.)

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/19/07 at 11:16am

"I love McArdle's voice, however, and she looks great these days (we're the same age.)"

McArdle's a belter. She has no business in an R&H show. Several years ago, she did a regional production of "They're Playing Our Song". I would have liked to have seen her in that.

[avab802]

Posted: 6/19/07 at 11:23am

I used to go to the Maryland State Fair when I was a kid, but we mostly went for the rides & games. I was never into the animal shows or other display booths - boring! I think the last time I went was when I was in high school. We rode a few rides, ate some funnel cake, and left.

We also used to go to two town carnivals every summer. In middle school, the carnival was the place to be. We'd go every night for the whole week it was in town. They had the usual rides, games, & food. Usually 2 or 3 nights were "ride night" where you bought a wristband for like $10 and could ride all you wanted all night. So of course on those nights all we did was ride rides. There were also a few tables of random things for sale, one of which sold stuff like silly string and stink bombs. This table took a lot of our money, and we spent a lot of time chasing each other around with silly string and throwing stink bombs into crowds near the food booths. I'm sure the carnival people loved it that all of our parents just dropped us off and left a bunch of unsupervised middle-schoolers to wreak havoc on them for 3+ hours.

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/19/07 at 12:00pm

Elph---The L.A. County Fair is in September, at the Pomona Fairgrounds (on the very outskirts of L.A. County). It's a huge place, and they put on quite the show each year.


L.A. County Fair website

[Mandi Moo]

Posted: 6/19/07 at 1:00pm

The New York State Fair is a lot of fun. It has what a lot of other fairs have...rides, really unhealthy yet delicious food, and animal shows and stuff.

In some of the buildings different companies set up booths and my sister and I would clean them out of all of the free pens and pencils.

Now, this might be kind of pathetic, but every year people get really excited about the butter sculpture. It's just a gigantic sculpture made out of butter, but in the days leading up to the fair there are sneek peeks on the news of what it's going to be and everyone gets really into it and there's always a crowd of people around it at the fair trying to catch a glimpse.

There's just a lot of stuff to see. Animals and cars and guys who do wood carvings with chain saws, etc. There at least 2 concerts every night. One of them is free and is right in the middle of the fair, and the others are over in the Grand Stand and they get some pretty big names, and on the last night there's a demolition derby, which I've never been too, but I'm sure it's fun.

Though, this year people are PO'd 'cause no one's allowed to bring in alcohol. Most people usually just bring in coolers and proceed to get completely trashed, but now they'll have to pay for it inside of the fair.

I can't go this year, and I'm sad.

[Jon]

Posted: 6/19/07 at 2:39pm

Highlight of the Illinois State Fair: The Giant Breaded Pork Tenderloin Sandwich - picture an 8 inch diameter piece of breaded pork on a standard 4 inch diameter hamburger bun.