Getting some country loving at the Oregon State Fair
How do we know the last days of summer are upon us? A stream of cars heading south out of Portland to scope out the Oregon State Fair – that’s how! Well, maybe not a stream of cars – do a lot of Portlanders visit Salem for the fair?
My wife and I headed down yesterday with a friend for a half day of Oregon State Fair pleasures. We started with the animals being handled by FFA members and other farmers/livestock owners. I found it particularly amusing (and perhaps a little twisted) to see one of the barns where cattle were being showed off labeled as the “Beef Barn.” I guess it at least calls it like it is.
Next stop happened to be the food area. Now I don’t know if you’ve ever hit one of the local county fairs for some of the quality offerings sold at vendor booths but we personally started off by sampling one of the most exotic offerings on hand: deep fried Twinkies and Snickers bars. They were quite tasty, though I could hear the sounds of my arteries hardening as I finished up the Snickers offering.
Much of the remainder of our time was spent checking out the arts and crafts exhibits entered by Oregonians from around the state, squeaking through the “cheap shit” area where people hawk stuff like miracle growth for beards and listening to a singer who vaguely sounded like Frank Sinatra.
You do have to admit there is a certain kind of country charm in going to the State Fair (especially when you are enjoying it with a Rogue Dead Guy Ale in hand). It reminds us here in Portland how rural much of Oregon really is. That’s one thing I appreciate about living in PDX – what’s at our doorstep.
Call me a snob – but the only thing I enjoy about the Oregon State Fair (or any fair) is that it isn’t in Portland.
When I lived in Des Moines – the Iowa State Fairgrounds were in Des Moines itself and for 2 weeks my city was overrun with pickup trucks and Oldsmobiles that couldn’t go the speed limit if they tried, people in overalls and Wranglers wandering around downtown gawking at the big buildings and holding up the lines at nearly every restaurant in town, and the entire eastside smelled of animal for weeks.
Not enough fried food on stick to make that tolerable.
You find it twisted to call it a “beef barn”?
Where you from, boy?
Re. the Iowa State Fair, two words: butter cow. Mmmmm… life-size butter cow. (Don’t they also do the busts of the dairy princess in butter?)
(Don’t they also do the busts of the dairy princess in butter?)
Wait a minute, that didn’t come out right….