Dear George,
Katja’s recollection is that we last went to the Ohio
State Fair in Columbus sometime before our son J’s birth in 1969. I
vaguely thought we might have gone there when J was about 10 or 12, but I was
unsure. Whatever the case, forty or fifty years is much too long to wait
between state fair outings. I myself love county and state fairs.
Some of my most exciting childhood
memories are going to the U.P. State Fair in Escanaba with my family.
Katja, J, and I went to the Hamilton County Fair in Carthage for many years,
and we always were excited to be frightened by Zambora the Gorilla Girl.
Columbus is further away from Cincinnati — a hundred miles — but definitely
worth the trip.
The Ohio State Fair is one of the nation’s largest.
It lasts for twelve days in late July and early August and attracts close to a
million visitors each year. The first Ohio State Fair was held in Camp
Washington outside Cincinnati in 1850 and had about 25,000 attendees in its
two-day run. Then it changed locations every year (e.g., Sandusky,
Zanesville, Toledo, Cleveland) until it moved permanently to Columbus in
1874. It’s been at the Ohio Expo Center and State Fairgrounds since 1886.
We arrived about 3 p.m. on Tuesday and were pleasantly
surprised that tickets were only $4 on Senior Day. We stopped first at
Cardinal Hall with all of its arts and crafts. The youth art exhibition
by elementary, middle school, and high school students was inspiring.
There were wonderful fantasy creations by first graders, and the high school
students’ works were near-professional quality. In addition, there were
quilts, leather-working and woodworking, model railroad trains, knitting and
sewing, fudge brownies, and even a competition for the world’s ugliest cake.
We made our way down Food Highway where Katja got a
squeezed lemonade. I will guess that there were at least a hundred food
vendors, all of them competing to see who could be the most harmful to Ohioans’
health. Katja and I decided that there wasn’t a single place that catered
to good nutrition. It didn’t matter since they all seemed to be doing a
good business.
We briefly watched a magician, a comic, a knife-juggler,
and a rock band. Some of the events were of particular interest to Katja,
and I would wander off to take a few photos. She always likes the cooking
demonstrations, and, along with several hundred other audience members, she
enjoyed the 4-H fashion review with 8- to 12-year-olds modeling outfits that
they’d sewn. Katja visited the ring-cleaning booth, had her ring cleaned,
and invested $20 in a bottle of their magic formula. We also had free
lunch (salad with nuts) at the “Cooking with Peanuts” show.
There were, of course, several animal buildings. We
stopped by to see the cows and petted a couple of week-old Holsteins. The
Pork building featured Marvelous, the Big Boar, who weighs 1140 pounds and
struck me as nearly as large as a cow. While the photo doesn’t do him
justice, I think Marvelous must be the largest pig in the world.
We looked forward to the rabbits the most, but were
disappointed that it was “Changeover Day” and so there were only a dozen or so
rabbits to be admired. Nonetheless, they were all show winners.
The Fine Arts Building, with adult art, photography, and
sculpture, offered a massive exhibition with lots of museum-quality work.
I was most moved by the Wounded Warriors exhibit which consisted of seven
eye-catching wood sculptures of wounded military dogs from the Iraq and
Afghanistan wars.
We were hungry by 6 p.m. and had a Bloomin’ Onion as an
appetizer. By the time we finished it we were filled up and decided that
it had been our evening meal.
After walking back and forth a couple of times I finally
decided to test the guy who guesses ages and weights. I paid him three
dollars and was happy when he guessed me to be 8 years younger than my actual
age. I thought I was going to get $6 back, but instead I won a small
stuffed monkey head which would might be sold at the 99 Cents Store. It
was worth it.
On the way out we asked a couple to take our photo, and
then we headed for home on I-71, stopping for Dairy Queen sundaes in
Wilmington. I’m glad we went to the fair. Despite all these years,
I never think much about living in Ohio. It always seems rather bland
compared to more exotic places we visit. However, there were so many
wonderful and amazing things produced by Ohioans that I found myself
experiencing a unfamiliar touch of Buckeye pride. There are a lot of
gifted people out there in the hinterlands. I think we’ll come back to
the State Fair again next year.
Love,
Dave
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