The most magical fair on earth...

One of the biggest things I miss about my hometown is the Kern County Fair. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the greater Bakersfield CA area allow me to enlighten you.

 

Now this is no ordinary fair..it is a magical time that happens the last week of september into the first week of october. As a young girl I have many fond memories of getting to take our annual trip with the neighborhood to this magical place. It is funny how an empty and downright ugly plot of land takes on a surge of life during these magical weeks.

It has everything your little heart desires…warm gooey cinnamon rolls, deep fired foods, pizza, the most amazing caramel corn and of course the most wonderful smell of hay and dirt (normally those smells aren’t appealing but at the fair it is totally different)! Oh and who couldn’t forget the deep fired snickers and twinkies (have to admit I never tried them). There are always fun concerts to attend, rides to ride and exhibits to browse. It may seem like any normal (and not even grand) fair to all you non bakersfieldians but for us its like no other!

As I got older the fair started to take on different roles in my life. In high school I was really involved in the FFA program (Future Farmers of America) and therefore raised two lambs and two pigs to show and sell at this glorious event. And oh how much fun that was! I basically got to live at the fairgrounds during those few weeks, but I never left the fair without the tears of saying goodbye to my beloved animals. I loved every bit of it though! And yes I do know that most people enter the animal area and wrinkles their noses at the umm well stench they seem to produce, but for me it is a smell full of memories (please don’t judge). Oh how I miss those days! Those joyfilled times of animals and cheerleading competitions.

P.S. Remind me to tell you guys about the time the little piggy jumped over the gate and I had to chase him all over the fair..soap suds and all!

Anyways, once I graduated from High School I no longer had the privilege of living in the animal pens of the fair :) However, I still did love going to the fair.

Sidenote..i’m always skeptical of the rides though…I mean seriously how sturdy can these rides be when they are put up and taken down so often?!

In college I got to help out and work in the City Firefighter booth selling all the yummy fair goodies (like fried burritos..yummm) with my dad (by the way he’s a firefighter)!

No matter what I am doing there I always come alive when entering between those golden gates of the fairgrounds! So therefore it has been hard to be away and not get to participate in this annual magical time. It has been probably 3-4 years since I have been able to attend and they say each year gets easier..well their wrong!

And why oh why do all you fellow facebookers have to torment me with all this talk and bragging of your fair trips this year..so not nice!

Maybe one day i’ll get to return to my beloved fair :)

And for you viewing pleasure..

Do any of you lovely bloggers have local fairs that you love?