The Los Angeles County Fair.

Boy did I have fun at the Fair! My earliest memory of the Fair is in the seventh grade around 1932. On the first day of the Fair the Pomona Schools would close and every student would get a free pass to the Fair. I cherished my ticket. Every school chum would be at the Fair.

I soon learned every spot where you could crawl under the fence and get in for free every day. I probably spent all day every day at the Fair that it was open. The fact that I was able to do this is an indication of my free wheeling home life. I guess that I was an outlaw.

My brother in law, Butch Butcher would work his regular shift on the Pomona City Police and then work another full shift on the Fair Police Force. He would look sleepy now and then. We all admired Butch. My sister in law LaVerne would work at a food stand.

The Fair is three years older than I am. It started in a beet field in Pomona in 1922. I was born in 1925. It is now the fourth largest Fair in the US and for 30 to 40 years has had an annual attendance over a million people. At one time it was the largest Fair in the US. The aerial photo below gives you an idea of large the Fair is.

It was and is a big Fair. You could spend days, and I did, wondering the exhibit buildings, livestock barns, and the midway.

I watched as half a hog cooked in front of this cafe, many times. It was across from the back of the grandstand. I remember the Reed and Bell Root Beer Stand that served real cold root beer in large frosted glass mugs.

All California Counties had exhibits in this building. The one above is the exhibit for Kern County. In one exhibit a man painted white moved like a mechanical man. In another, a man stood perfectly still for long periods of time. Good free entertainment.

A unique exhibit was the permanent model train. You could sit and look at the trains for hours. When I was going it was operated by one local citizen. It now is operated by a large group of volunteers the year round. It is probably the largest model train exhibit in the world. You realize of course that everything in California is either the biggest, the tallest, the deepest, the hottest, or the oldest in the world.

 I was a regular fair goer from the age of 12 to when I went into the Army at 17. I never went to Fair again until I was a grand father. Sometime around the late 1970s, after 30 or so years, I went again. I had a good excuse. My grandson Steven (Kerry's oldest child.) had never been to the Fair. I thought that he needed the culture. (I really wanted to go). The memory of our day at the Fair is precious to me. Steven passed away in 2003 at the age of 33. What a tragedy for his family and loved ones.

Steven and I really had a good time. I think it is about time that I went to the Los Angeles County Fair again. It has been 30 to 40 years since our visit. Steven and I paid full price and entered at the gate. As a grandfather I was a good citizen. Steven and I went up in a helicopter. That was a thrill. We went to a show in the grandstand that featured the Canadian Royal Mounted Police. We toured the horse barn and admired the 30 or so Morgan horses that the Mounties used. They all looked alike and were beautiful. The Mounties really put on a good show.

It would be kinda nice to go again to the Fair!