JENN McKINLAY: Surprising no one, I am sure, I love state fairs. I love the food, the rides, the concerts (the Hooligans' first rock concert was ZZ Top at the Arizona State Fair), the crafts, the vendors, and the critters - chickens, bunnies, pigs, goats, cows - I adore them all.
Seriously, is there a better way to spend a day than petting a piglet, eating deep fried cheesecake, riding the sling shot, and rocking out to whoever is playing? No, there is not!
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| Hooligans crushing the carnival games 2013 |
Why is this on my mind? Because Hooligan 2 is jetting his way to the Iowa State Fair as you read this (AZ's fair is in October) and I am so jealous! Why? Because H2's Plus One is from Iowa and she testifies that it is the best state fair in the country. I was dubious until she told me that they have a butter cow. Yes, a full size cow made of butter!
BUTTER COW!!!!
So, I have given the touring twosome a mission: I require a picture of them standing with the butter cow. Also, H2 told me they deep fry a stick of butter (OMG!) and he has promised me that he will try it and report back. Following their report, I may have to put attending the Iowa State Fair on my to do list.
So, how about you, Reds and Readers, do you love state fairs or not so much? If you do, what's your favorite part?
You make it sound like so much fun, Jenn . . . but I've never been to a state fair, so I haven't a clue . . . .
ReplyDeleteI highly recommend checking one out, Joan! Go for the baby goats stay for the onion blossom. :)
DeleteI’m with Joan. Will add that the thought of deep fried butter has killed my appetite even for my morning latte!
ReplyDeleteThat’s me Elisabeth with the dead appetite.
ReplyDeleteLOL - I was told it tastes like a cinnamon roll???
DeleteLiving in Canada, I have only been to one state fair in 2022. Before BOUCHERCON, I went to the Minnesota State Fair.
ReplyDeleteIt was so HUGE. Of course I ate so much food on a stick, much of it for the first time ever. Fried walleye was really good but the chocolate dipped salted nut roll on a stick was the best! And cups of the freshest cold milk was delish on a blazing hot day.
The Minnesota State Fair is very similar to the Iowa State Fair, Grace. That milk used to be all you can drink for 25 cents. We would get the bucket of chocolate chip cookies and then go stand at the milk booth to eat them.
DeleteIt was $1 for a cup of milk in 2022 with no refills. Don't remember seeing the bucket of chocolate chip cookies but I did eat a bag of mini-donuts. I was on a sugar high all day!
DeleteSounds like you did it right, Grace!
DeleteDang it! Now whenever I see a real live cow I'm going to think, "I can't believe that's not butter," because that's the way my twisted mind works. Thanks for putting that little earworm in my head. Grrr.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the guffaw, Jerry!
DeleteOMG, he is going to have THE BEST TIME!!
ReplyDeleteWe have gone to lots of fairs over the years, especially when Jonathan was young, but I don't think that we will again. We went to a really big fair in North Carolina with friends and the men made some eye-popping food choices. LOL
The largest fair around here is the Eastern States Exposition ( The Big E) less than an hour north of here. The timing was never right for me to go and that is a big regret because now I don't think I could appreciate a whole day on my feet like I could have done once upon a time.
Judy,
DeleteI’ve been to the Big E a couple of times, but that was over forty years ago. It was fun, but hard on my back and feet! I first heard of calzones when I went there. Turns out I don’t like them, so I wasn’t missing anything!
I prefer the smaller fairs, such as the Harwinton Fair, the Durham Fair, and the late, great Danbury Fair.
DebRo
There still are lots of town fairs around the state in the autumn and I always want to go, but haven't gone in a long time.
DeleteWeirdly, I grew up in CT but never went to the BIg E. I did go to the Brooklyn Fair (Brooklyn, CT) several times and LOVED it!
DeleteRight now this week our county fair is going on, although I haven't been in years. It's known as the Sunshine Fair, but with this rainy week sun has been in very short supply. Still I would love to be there and see the animals. As a 4-H-er I entered many things, baked goods and sewing projects in the fair and won many ribbons. My wheat bread went on to be entered in the State Fair.
ReplyDeleteI have gone to our State Fair a few times. I especially remember a time when I was in high school and my boyfriend joined the family for our adventure. There was some sort of double Ferris wheel, sort of a wheel above the first wheel. I'm not good with heights at any time so my eyes were tightly closed and I kept thinking "right now we are at the bottom." My mistake was in opening them because at that point we were right at the very top. Oh my! But I could see the entire state of NY or so it seemed.
Then Eric started winning me teddy bears, huge ones. We was a wiz at basketball free throws and so he just kept winning! Not sure how we fit them all my family's little Ford Falcon.
Last year my son went to the Ste fair and he called to tell me he was standing next to a food truck that featured lobster rolls! It told him to make sure to go find the butter sculpture - it's something different each year. He did see it and was most impressed.
One of the reasons I married the Hub was because he could win me the BIG stuffed animals at the fair - I never had a boyfriend do that before!
DeleteOkay, Jenn--we need a new State Fair romcom and right there's a meet-cute idea. The girl at the fair with the bf who's a bit snobby about State Fairs and then the cute guy who wins the BIG stuffed animal and gives it to her, with a wink, and disappears into the crowds.
DeleteHow fun for H2! One of Jess Lourey's Murder by the Month mysteries centers on a midwestern (Wisconsin? Minnesota?) fair with a Butter Queen and lots of butter sculptures, as I recall (and mayhem, naturally).
ReplyDeleteI never made it to the Big E, and like Judy, I now probably won't. But I won several blue ribbons at the Essex County Fair back when I had my small farm, including a Best of Show for my family farm exhibit which centered on a basket I had made. For me the farm exhibits are the best part of a fair like that. I don't care about the rides (do NOT try to make me hang upside down...) but happily sample the food.
At the Minnesota State Fair they do carve busts of the Dairy Queen and all the Princesses out of butter. I saw a film of the carver working on them one year. The girls get to keep them after the Fair is over. I believe the one girl said they used hers up for big community pancake breakfasts that the Diary Association has.
DeleteCool!
DeleteThe rides are the best part - jk - I'm not nearly as adventurous as I was when I was young. *sigh*
DeleteAlas, I've never been to a state fair.
ReplyDeleteYou have Coney Island, Dru. I envy you that!
DeleteI saw Sonny and Cher at the NY State Fair way back when, and I've been to the Big E where I was surprised to see a huge line waiting for baked potatoes at the Maine building. But I'm not a crowd person, so don't go to fairs too often. Here in VT, we do have the tiny Tunbridge World's Fair which is more my style. It's fun to browse the handicrafts building and the display of things made of giant zucchinis by kids.
ReplyDeleteMarianne, when I was much younger it seemed that the entire population of my small Massachusetts town would be transported to Vermont for the Tunbridge World's Fair. Great memories. My mother would spend days preparing snacks to fill the back of his station wagon for his friends to munch on throughout the day. My father and I would spend a couple of hours sitting on a small hill near where a craftsman would be making wood shingles by hand, just watching the variety of people walking by...to this day, people watching is one of my favorite pastimes.
DeleteThe craft barn is a fave of mine!
DeleteMy sister, niece, and niece’s boyfriend are going to the Iowa State Fair TODAY! My sister-in-law always exhibits her tatting projects.
ReplyDeleteBeware of the product demos that suck you in! My dad worked in ag sales and was an exhibitor at many State Fairs over the years. Sometimes my parents’ wedding anniversary was when he was away at a Fair. One year long, long ago he bought Mom a hand cranked meat grinder. He never lived that down. After that she always got flowers!
Another time we went to the Missouri State Fair with Dad. My sister’s glasses flew off when we were on the Tilt-a-Whirl. We managed to find them in the grass between the rides. Back to Dad’s exhibit where he pulled some tape out of his briefcase and got them back together for her.
And then there was the time we rode the double Ferris wheel and it stopped when I was at the tippy top with my brother. Turns out it stopped because they had to get my sisters off because the little one was puking. Yes, she is the one who is going to the Fair today. They will have a wonderful time!
Oh Brenda I think you win for cutest Fair stories! They sound like something from a Leave it to Beaver episode!
DeleteThank you, Stracia. Lots of memories for me.
DeleteI still have, and use, my "miracle knife" bought from a vendor at the Wisconsin State Fair more than 50 years ago.
DeleteI love all of this! Yes, they will and I am a bit jealous, tbh.
DeleteI love fairs! Williamstown Fair is this weekend - the oldest fair in Canada. I worked as a contestant (crafts, etc), 4-H Leader, and on the board. All of it was good from every angle. Best food - the Octoberfest Sausage at the Ottawa Ex - worth waiting for every year.
ReplyDeleteSaddest bit - watching the 4-H kids show their prize pigs, have them go on to Auction, and then watching the kids in the pen, kissing their pig goodbye - it goes on a different truck. So sad, but as Annie says 'the sun will come out tomorrow - and there will be a new piglet!"
I always admire the 4-H kids.
DeleteI've only been to the Ohio State Fair once, when I was in my 20's. However, I have sent countless 4H sewing kids to both their county fairs, and to the state one. I was just thinking about this the other night, trying to figure out how many years I judged the sewing projects and modeling skills of the 4H kids, somewhere in the neighborhood of 6-8 years, and in four different counties. 4H is part of the Extension Service, which is part of the USDA (Department of Agriculture), and both kids and adults enter projects ranging from canned goods to baked ones (for you, Jenn!), to best vegetables, to all manner of animals, and yes, sewing projects. There are lots of quilts and other project categories, but I judged fashion sewing, and only for the kids.
ReplyDeleteThere are two stages of judging for clothing, with a couple sideshoots. The first point of entry is the county judging, usually taking place in a huge room, with kids bringing their woodworking projects to one judge, their apple pies to another, and the sewing stuff to me or the judge du jour. The difference for the sewing is that the kids have to either be wearing the project, or have it worn by whomever it was made for. (Some cute little siblings probably outgrew projects too fast to model at the state fair, which is the second stage.) The top three got to go on to state. The sideshoot I judged was the modeling, which the kids worked on alongside the sewing projects. I loved that, especially since it took place at the county fair. It was fun to see teenagers so nervous, but so proud of their work. And it was always SO hot, especially if the stage was outdoors.
Our Kentucky farm is in Pendleton County, the home of the famous Wool Festival, which takes place the first weekend in October. That is the only county fair I've been to in a long time now, and it is not even their official county fair. They still have baby animals, though, in the "wool tent", which also has next to it the yarns, spinning wheels, and knitted goods related to all kinds of "wools", which has included alpaca for awhile now. There's food, too, oh my, yes. Turkey legs (which I swear are really ostrich, they're enormous), are wildly popular. My favorite part, though, is the demonstrations of rural arts and crafts, which also includes sheep herding and shearing. I've seen demos of blacksmithing, candle and soap making, sorghum and maple syrup processing, weaving, and spinning. And there are entertainers in two places, usually including some old-timey kind of band along with the usual rock-types.
The reason I was asked to judge so many 4H kids: there were not many sewing teachers to go around, and also, since most of the kids stay in 4H for many years, they prefer for judges to only serve every other year. Less chance of prejudice for or against that way. Sometimes it was inevitable to repeat, but I loved following one family, in particular. I knew their mom slightly, because she was very active in the local American Sewing Guild, and she herself was an adult blue ribbon winner many times. She was the advisor for their 4H chapter, and her two daughters always had the most interesting, and best-made projects. It wasn't my job to determine exactly who made the garments, but I did see progress from early projects to senior ones. And because 4H is primarily educational, I was able to advise kids on why their projects needed more work or could be improved somehow. I really loved doing the job.
DeleteKaren, they were so lucky to have you. What an amazing experience. I had no idea that 4-H got so involved in the crafts. Wow!
DeleteWool festival did you say? My inner knitter is now looking for airfare to Kentucky in October :)
I'd love to show you around, Jenn!
DeleteThey carve other things out of butter in addition to the cow at the Iowa State Fair. Last year they did sports figures which included Caitlin Clark and Kurt Warner. https://justwomenssports.com/reads/caitlin-clark-butter-statue-iowa-womens-basketball-state-fair-2023/
ReplyDeleteUpdating my list of photo demands to H2 as I type!
DeleteI used to love the local county fair but after 50+ years attending it has somewhat become the similar over the years. But we go because our grandkids love it!
ReplyDeleteFairs really are magical for kids (even the big ones like me).
DeleteWe have several fairs over the season here in Maine. My favorites are the Fryburg and Common Ground. My first day with my now husband was at the Oxford Fair back in 1989! What I love most about attending fairs is that they really have not changed much since my childhood (though I am hoping they have updated some of the rides now to safer versions). The food, atmosphere, entertainment,, and wholesome fun remain fairly intact. The world may continue to evolve (is that what is happening?🤣), but the fairs remind me that it’s usually the simpler things in life that bring me a sense of contentment and pleasure (especially fried dough!)
ReplyDeleteYou're so right! They really haven't changed. Maybe that's why I love them so.
DeleteI've been to the county fair, but not the state fair. Seems like great fun though! A friend of mine entered the "table decorating" event at our state fair a couple of times. A politician who has very much been in the news this week has participated in butter carving--which meant that butter carving got a mention from Alexandra Petri in a hilarious column. https://wapo.st/3SHeDcT
ReplyDeleteThat is an awesome piece. LOL. I loved it!
DeleteDeep fried butter...I can feel my arteries harden as I type that.
ReplyDeleteI've never been to a state fair, but the Erie County Fair in New York was held only a couple of miles from my house growing up. Watching the Fair Train roll in, loaded with all the rides, was an annual event (sadly the train has been replaced with a fleet of 18-wheelers). We went regularly when I was growing up and yes, we did All the Things. Except the concerts. Too expensive.
When I got older, the pool store where I had my summer job had a booth at the fair, so I would work it.
My sister recently took my nephew. It's gotten super expensive. But she did let him bring home his first pet, the "fair fish." We'll see how it goes.
Oh, yes, the dreaded fair fish. LOL. At least he's better off now, right?
DeleteI must speak up for the amazing Wisconsin State Fair! Fair food for miles, and featuring Cream Puffs made on site with fresh REAL whipped cream. 4-H kids proudly showing incredible animals, and winning big prizes, especially the beef cattle. Rides and concerts and everything you could want, for a week in August.
ReplyDeleteMelinda, a good friend's granddaughter was Fairest of the Fair last year in Waukesha County, and she was runner-up for state.
DeleteIt was fun seeing video clips of her duties as fair ambassador on Facebook. Posted by her proud Nana.
Oh! Now I want to go to WI, too!
DeleteCharlie Berens' videos on the Wisconsin State Fair are a riot.
DeleteThe Ohio State Fair also has a butter cow. In fact, Ohio State (the university) has a whole herd of dairy cows! Best part of the Ohio State Fair? The strawberry ice cream from the dairy exhibit.... P.S., pic of hooligans is adorable!
ReplyDeleteThey were cute. Thank you. Strawberry ice cream??? Sign me up!
DeleteI'm a huge fan of the NC State fair! It isn't for the wild food choices, although I'm pretty sure that fried twinkie I ate during my first visit is still with me, but because there is an entire section of the fair dedicated to artisanal crafts where they are engaged in the work throughout the duration of the fair.
ReplyDeleteFor several years however, we used to go to a small county fair in Pennsylvania that had fun rides, a few games and the most unusual competition I'd ever seen. It was an occupied outhouse race. Each team had to build an outhouse "structure" and run it down the field and back while someone was inside it. As well as speed, points were given for creativity and decor. The highly coveted trophy? A toilet seat, painted gold of course.
That is hiiiilarious!!! Yo have to wonder how it came to be.
DeleteI wrote a note on my history with the WI state Fair but it seems to have disappeared. That has also happened with other rather innocuous comments, so I'm giving up. But if this one makes it through, they sell an average of 400,000 cream puffs at the Wisconsin fair each year, and this year is the 100th anniversary of the cream puff booth at the fair. https://wistatefair.com/fair/original-cream-puffs-2/
ReplyDeleteMmmm. Love cream puffs. Don't disappear, Ellen! I don't know what happened to your posts... Blogger can be weird (all purpose word for the times).
DeleteBlogger clearly needs a cream puff, as do I. That is amazing, Ellen.
DeleteJENN: These hooligans look happy in the photo. Your state fair sounds like fun.
ReplyDeleteThough I have seen a butter cow in real life, I cannot recall where I saw the butter cow. It was miniature size, made for a dinner table. Perhaps I saw it at a dinner party many years ago.
Was there an old movie about a State Fair with Judy Garland or Shirley Jones?
Meet Me in St Louis?
Delete1933 movie called State Fair based on 1932 book. Another version came out in 1945 and there was another remake in 1962. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Fair_(1945_film)
DeleteThank you, Jenn and Brenda!
DeleteI have only been to fairs twice because most of them have been too far away and lack of interest from friends and family.
ReplyDeleteThe first one was The Big E. It was a number of years ago.One of the things I remember was that all of the New England states had their own pavilion with each having exhibitors from that particular state.
I bought a little hand made lamb for my nephew from an MA exhibitor. My nephew was just a couple of years old then. Today he is a 6’4” adult.
The other fair I went to was also in MA. It was the Topsfield Fair.
The highlight of that one was seeing the Clydesdale horses. I knew they were big, but didn’t realize they were enormous. I am fairly tall and they towered over me.
I enjoyed both and probably would go again if anyone I knew also had an interest in going.
Clydesdales are HUGE! Those sound like wonderful fair days.
DeleteI've only ever been to the Ohio state fair. Considering I live in California, that's quite funny. However, I used to go to my county fair every year growing up. Haven't gone to the LA County Fair in the time I've lived down here. I've been on the grounds for other things (like obstacle runs), but never the fair.
ReplyDeleteI have always enjoyed them when I've gone. Maybe I should try going to the county fair this fall.
I love them in the fall the most. Apples and pumpkins and all that...
DeleteI love the State of Texas and try to go every year. It starts in late September and goes through the middle of October. Every year, the Taste of Texas contest starts in late July to pick the new deep-fried specialty foods they will have at the Fair. We also have a full-size butter cow sculpture and fried sticks of butter. I can’t wait!
ReplyDeleteI am definitely missing out. Darn it.
DeleteI'd like to be on Iowa State Fair road trip Jenn! My favorite fair ever was on Shetland in Scotland: https://www.jungleredwriters.com/2022/10/at-fair.html
ReplyDeleteOoh, I remember that post. That looked awesome.
DeleteWe have a gi-normous fair near us south of Boston, every August. It's got all the terrible foods (fried dough, cotton candy, frozen bananas...) and 4H chickens and horse pulls and weird carnival rides. The last time we went was years ago when we had a French family visiting us and we were indulging them in all things American. (They sat through a Red Sox game the night before where I explained how one team was trying to frapp-ay the ball. )
ReplyDeleteHallie, where is this fair? Topsfield is the only one I know in the Boston area and that’s north.
DeleteLOL - Americans do have our own sort of culture, don't we?
DeleteI've never been to a state fair. However, every August, everyone in our town and county would go to the county fair, named the Germantown Fair because it was on land right outside of Germantown in our county. When I first started going as a small child, they had the huge bandstand with bench seating around the arena. You always had to take newspaper to sit on, since the pigeons seemed so fond of those white-washed benches. There were rides and games and candy and the beauty contest and the baby beauty contest and the horse shows and the high school band played. By the time I was in high school, the old arena/bandstand had been torn down and there were different fenced-in rings with seating around them. As a teenager, it was a must-attend event as many nights as you could to meet friends and maybe a new guy or girl.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the pic of the butter cow, Jenn. It's quite something.
Oh, yes, fairs are excellent venues for teenage shenanigans :)
DeleteGrowing up in NJ, there was no state fair. I do remember a day trip to an Amish fair in Kutztown, Pennsylvania where someone was demonstrating broom making. The only food I remember was shoo fly pie, which no one in the family liked.
ReplyDeleteAs an adult, the only fair experience I’ve had is the Topsfield Fair. I went almost 40 years ago when I first moved here and again 12-ish years ago. There was a show with performing horses doing synchronized moves, like the June Taylor Dancers did on the old Jackie Gleason TV show. My friends and I are all old enough to have made that comment almost in unison when we saw them.
We went about halfway through the run of the fair. Many of the exhibits, like flowers and produce, were worse for the wear. Our favorite was the hand work — embroidery, knitting, sewing, etc.
We bypassed the fair food and went out for a late lunch with table service and air conditioning on the way home.
Never been to the Big E. Too far away and too big to appeal.
I love the crafts! SO many talented people.
DeleteI have never been to a state fair but have many times gone to the San Diego County Fair (formerly - and still by us long time residents - known as the Del Mar Fair). We haven’t been since the Pandemic but only because there weren’t any bands we wanted to see or we were busy.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I haven’t been to a State Fair (yes, Diana, there were a few movies named “State Fair”, the most recent in 1962 with Pat Boone and Ann Margaret; music by Rogers and Hammerstein), I was in Wisconsin in 1986. They were showing ads on TV for the fair that featured animated sheep singing, “We are the wool, we are the state fair”!! (For those of you who don’t remember, “We are the World” came out in ‘85.) I swear my husband and I are the only people outside of Wisconsin who still remember that. And still sing it if someone mentions “wool”! :-). — Pat S
That is hiiilarious and clearly some marketing genius as you still remember it. LOL.
DeleteI guess the Farm Show is Pennsylvania's state fair, but since it is in January and indoors, there are no rides. It has everything agricultural, including cute animals, and FARM SHOW FOOD! Farm Show milkshakes are even sold at other events now. I actually prefer the honey ice cream cones, and there is a shorter line.
ReplyDelete