What little kid doesn’t like a fair? The Texas State Fair is the Grand-daddy of them all! Texas always boasted of having the biggest state fair in the U.S., and I suspect this is a true claim. I was fortunate as a little kid to get to go to this attraction every year. I don’t think my husband, who grew up in west Texas, ever even made it to the fair. Located on a sprawling, 277 acre campus in southeast Dallas, appropriately named Fair Park, the fairgrounds include the livestock pavilions, museums, exhibit halls, the world-famous Cotton Bowl, and every kid’s favorite, the Midway. Visitors to the Fair are greeted by Big Tex, a 55′ tall talking and animated statue dressed, of course, in blue jeans and a western shirt. Imagine a Howdy Doody puppet on steroids, and you get the idea!
The State Fair was so important to Dallas that we even got a day off from school in October to attend. When we were younger, my parents dutifully took us every year. By the time I was in 7th or 8th grade, my parents let me take the bus to the Fair. This entailed a lengthy bus ride from northwest Dallas to downtown and. Transfer to another bus to southeast Dallas. As I look back at this, I must admit that I am somewhat surprised that they allowed that. In today’s seemingly more dangerous society, that might be a high risk kind of adventure!
Nonetheless, when my friends and I arrived at the Fair, we dutifully traipsed through the various exhibit halls. We looked at the cows and horses and even the pigs! We surveyed the handmade quilts, jars of beautiful jewel toned jams and jellies, and yummy looking pies. I would have loved to be one of the judges for the pies, but, alas, they never asked me! One of the first things that used to greet visitors near the front entrance was a little “house” where Elsie the Borden’s Dairy cow lived with her husband Elmer, and their offspring Beulah and Beauregard. I assume, like Borden’s Dairy, they are all long gone. It never occurred to me then, but I have to wonder if Elmer was actually a steer rather than a bull? 
The Midway was, of course, our favorite place to stop. All of those glorious rides! For .10 or .25 a ride, you could ride endlessly or so it seemed. Besides the rides, the Midway featured a number of booths where you could win an array of cheap prizes like stuffed animals and little plaster “stuff” of various kinds. There were also a larger number of side shows being hawked by the carneys! I wonder if they are still around today as by today’s standard they were so politically incorrect! There was the bearded lady (Poor thing probably just needed some hormone therapy!), the tattooed man (Today he wouldn’t even get a second glance; just look at professional athletes or many of the visitors in any US mall for tattoos!), and the sad animal examples of anomalies in nature like the two-headed snake and so on.
On one memorable occasion, my little sister was on the kiddie ferris wheel, the kind with little closed cages, when the ride stalled out. Soon the entire air was permeated with the sounds of wailing little kids! Much to the consternation of the operators of the ride, my Dad and my uncle, who was visiting us from Philadelphia at the time, climbed up the outer structure of the little wheel and proceeded to hand down the bawling little ones to other father who jumped in to help out. These days in my adult mode I always wonder if the operators of these rides are sober and haven’t had a few puffs of weed or a quick hit out of a flask and when was the last time the ride was thoroughly checked out for safety!
Then there was the food, of course–sticky cotton candy, greasy corn dogs, drippy ice cream bars, and hot pretzels. It was a wonder that we didn’t all go home with an upset tummy, or maybe we did, and I just blotted out that memory! I probably haven’t had cotton candy or a corn dog in over 40 years, but in those days it all tasted pretty good to me. One of my favorites was a stand that sold a box with a couple of pieces of fried chicken sitting atop some soggy French fries and a very flat slice of white bread. This delicious box came with a couple of packets of honey, ensuring that we were completely a gooey mess by the time we finished. Remember this was before Colonel Sanders became a household name!
Does the mystique of a State Fair still enchant new generations of kids who have grown up with Disney World, Universal Studios, and Six Flags over Texas? I hope the fun of going to a State Fair still entrances them! This is truly a little slice of the American heritage that we need to hang on to!
©The Eclectic Grandma, 2016
