It's that time of year that the folks in Wayne County wait for..The Wayne County Fair, now in it's 149th year. I can't think of anything on the planet that's continued, basically unchanged for 149 years. The fairgrounds are relatively small. You can go from end to end in about 20 minutes at a slow pace. It has the obligatory midway with rides, mostly for kids, and food ranging from good to ptomaine express. And there is the "real" reason for the fair, the livestock judging.
When I was a kid, the Fair was in the second week of September and on Wednesday, it was "School Day" when we all got a ticket for free admission. It was the highlight of the school year and a good promotion to get the parents to spend money and maybe try to win a teddy bear at one of the arcade games. It was also a time for them them to renew old acquaintances from the year before while the kids rode all the rides. It was a safe and innocent time.
As I got older, the rides became to small and too slow and my attention shifted to the entertainment. There was alway Joie Chitwoods Hell Drivers thrill show and Saturday night Stock Car Races on the quarter mile dirt track they built inside the horse track. The grandstands were always filled for both and the Chitwood show was always exciting as the dirt horse track lead to the cars not doing what the drivers intended them to and, as with the stock car races, the wrecks were the most exciting.
The live stage shows were another matter. Unknown singers, dancers, jugglers, tightrope walkers..And the highlight, year after year, Myron Floren and his "accor-deen"..One year I got a job as the barker at one of the "freak shows"..I think we had monkey boy and a bearded lady. And the pay was outstanding..$2.50 an hour..not bad when the minimum wage was $1.25. After my gig was done, the other kids my age would walk over to the back row and catch the naked ladies and their interesting use of kitchen utensils. The girlie shows were dropped in later years, leading to a plunge in fair attendance. (just kidding)
The fair director was my family doctor and friend, Doc Perkins. In late December of 1968, I had to visit him because I had the flu. He asked me who he should get for entertainment for the fair, as Myron Floren was wearing out his welcome. I suggested two names that would be pricey but fill the grandstand..Eddy Arnold and Bobby Vinton. Early in '69, he told me he got Vinton for $7,500 dollars, way over their budget but he agreed to do two shows.
The fair in '69 would wind up being my last for a number of years. The girl I had placed my future on was running late, and I was a bit..make that very aggitated and for the first time ever I raised my voice and made a jack-ass out of myself. After the show I raced home and literally kicked her out of the car as she didn't want to stay at the fair and I did. It wound up being our last time together except for a trip to the dentist to have a wisdom tooth pulled. At that time, my prospects weren't all that good and she was probably looking for a way out. In retrospect, I wish I'd been given another 6 months when I got my act together. But she moved on and I hope her life has been as fulfilling as mine. But that's another story for another time.
I went one more time to the fair around 1985..I went back to the old homestead to visit when the fair was going on. The prices were substantially higher, to be expected. When the date was changed from September to August, it was primarily to take advantage of the thousands of kids from New York City in the area summer camps. They had money to burn and not much else to spend it on. The rides were rickety. I did ride the very small ferris wheel and I half expected it to roll across the midway into the horse track. There were people in the livestock area, mostly kids who wouldn't know a cow from a goat. I didn't see anybody I knew, but then again, maybe I didn't look to hard. I wanted to show my wife where I spent part of my youth. We didn't stay too long. I had ghosts of fair's past dogging every footstep.
The fair is still the only game in town during the dog days of summer. It was always cooler and brighter in September. My memories are bittersweet but I'll never forget walking the midway, a beautiful girl on my arm, and the sounds of happy children, and the smell of cotton candy and candied apples. They are the memories of youth, only slightly dimmed by time.
