Have you ever been to a county fair in a rural area and what was your impression?

I’ve not only been, I was a part of the freak show for years. My grandparents, parents, siblings, children and, in a few years, grandchildren have been involved in 4H for years and years in a rural Indiana county. LOL, it is a freak show and the event of the year, but it’s fun! :~D

@Tuesdays_Child GA. The 4-H part is nice. It’s the rest of the thing that’s a freak show. XD

Yes.I love it!
It is a great opportunity to take pictures of chickens ;)

I must have missed something… why are they a freak show?

@lucillelucillelucille LMAO. You are going to get me committed.XD

I grew up in Wisconsin in the 70´s-80´s. There was a county fair every year and it was a huge treat to go and help my friends and cousin who were in 4H with their livestock showing. We would camp there in the adjoining campground and it usually fell on my birthday, so my wonderful mother would find a way to make a cake out of my favorite cookies or something fun like that.

I loved looking at all the animals that were shown and I would pick out the cutest kitty and fluffiest bunny and wish it were mine. Then, I would help Diane wash her heifers for show and make sure they didn´t lay back in the poop right before they were to be shown. She always got blue ribbons and it was so fun to be around.

At night, we would hit the rides with a fistful of tickets. The Zipper was my favorite and my cousin and I would see how many times we could get the carriage to spin in a row. We´d pig out on cotton candy and junk food and try to win a goldfish with a pingpong ball. In the even we did win, the poor thing never survived the days it was stuck in the bag before we got home.

Loads of fond memories, until we got a bit older and my sister started hanging around a very rough crowd (he was a carney, and not the good kind.) and some of their ´fun´ spilled over into our more innocent version and ruined it for me. Dad wouldn´t take me after that.

@dappled_leaves I guess you have to be in Upstate NY to get the full affect. We have the queen of the welfare states.

But poor people are not automatically freaks… I’m just wondering why the label. I don’t think I could characterize the county fairs where I grew up as “freak shows”, even if I had little in common with most of the people there.

@dappled_leaves You’re right, poor people aren’t freaks. Let’s just say I saw more dirty, tattooed, teethless women and men yesterday than I really wanted to.

Oh my….

I think there is much more of a freak-show going on now at the Iowa State fair.

@cazzie I don’t know, I’d think you’re going to be hard pressed to beat ours for that distinction.

I totally love those sorts of things.

As for being “freak shows”, it has been my experience that rural dwellers consider those “city dwelling morons” to be every bit as freaky as those dazzling urbanites think the county folks are.

(FWIW, I tend to agree with the country folks even though I live in “the big city” and make my living pounding a keyboard.)

@YoBob I guess we’re all kind of freaky in our own ways. XD

You know that it´t the straw poll in Iowa right now, right? With the crazies that are running for President… and then of course Sarah Palin is there too…. with her bus, but she can´t say she´s running or Fox will have to cut their umbilical with her.

@cazzie I concede to your freak show. I didn’t realize that was going on. We can’t touch that kind of show.

Yes, once….the Neshoba County fair in central Mississippi….in the summer. It is the entry door to Hell. Think 101 degrees, 100% humidity, no water anywhere in sight (hey, this is CENTRAL MS). This fair is the high point of the locals year. The have cabins (with no AC) and they go and stay for days. Augh!!!!!

I went to a pumpkin light up show thingy in upste NY, but I guess I wasn’t north enough,because everyone looked normal.

@Blackberry Where was that? We have a Pumpkin Fest in October.

I don’t remember. They light up a bunch of pumpkins (some are fake). I think it was called Pumpkin Fest, though. I wanna say the name of the town started with a C?

That might have been Chenango for the county court house or it could have been Candor. Was it in a park in the center of town on both sides of the street?

Yes I have and I love them. I do live in a very rural, poor area of Illinois.

(I grew up in Las Vegas. Now that is a freak show) ;)

@Adirondackwannabe Candor! That’s it. And there was the greatest pizza restaurant in a shopping center across the street.

I know exactly where you were.They have a great little farmstand there. It’s about 60 miles West of where I live.

@Adirondackwannabe Sweet, I also went to the Applewood Winery in NY and Lake George. It was fun up there, although I didn’t see any Ozark-looking people lol. Lake george was frozen and people were riding ATVs on it!

I love the old fashioned County Fairs much better than the big, glitzy State Fair. It’s fun watching the kids participating in the Gymkhana events and getting excited when their lamb or squash earns a ribbon.

After dark, the men are good and tanked and it’s hilarious games like climbing a greased pole or catching the greased pig. Good times.

The largest county fair in the state, and one of the largest in the country (353 acres and sometimes over half a million visitors), is held about 15 minutes from my house. I love it. I go every year, and I take my time petting all of the animals, I also enjoy the equipment displays, and of course the rides, games, and food. I would hate to miss it, I probably look forward to that every year more than anything else.

I live in the south west of England. Of course I have been to a county fair! I enjoy them.