My wife suggested we might go to the Dutchess County Fair this year...ok, i have kind of fought it for 15 or 20 years..i can take one more go..a lot of people go every year. When i was young it was an affordable county fair..the American Legion sold 50 cent bottles of Rheingold and there were local vendors who sold things like clams on the half shell..but then Connecticut and New Jersey and Manhatten came to the fair..to the tune of 80 thousand people a day....the local vendors could no longer afford to rent a space. And its all sanitized now..you no longer see the carnies ripping off the local rubes with "games of chance". What can i say..the world is different.
The fair comes to town here first weekend in october. I actually live right next door to the fairgrounds. All year long its no big deal but fair week.....look out. Throughout the year, usually there are just a few low key equestrian events. During fair week it's lots of noise and lots of traffic. I still enjoy going every year though. I enjoy looking at the exhibits and talking to the people. There are art competitions and quilting competitions. All of the churches set up concessions as fundraisers.
A couple of years ago they had helicopter rides. The helicopter literally flew over my bedroom all night long. I thought I was in 'Nam. The cyclone or what ever you call is has a carnie who has a loud PA system. My wife and I remember a few years ago laying in bed trying to get to sleep when we hear the carnie yelling "I wanna hear you scream!". We still get a good laugh out of that one.
My kids used to go two or three nights when the fair was in town. They're "too old" for that now. That makes me a little sad. With all of the noise, lights, traffic and other general pains I'm still excited every year when the fair comes to town.
I was really surprised how pristine the grounds were..what a difference from the messy grounds of the old days...there were trash and recycle bins everywhere and people were using them. I guess the kids must buy wristbands for the rides...the rides are 5 bucks apiece now, not 25 cents...we did not have wristbands so it would have been ten bucks for the wife and i to go on a ride. We saw two decent free shows and the weather was perfect..we stayed 8 hours and go our monies worth.
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