I was scanning the 1970 Athens, Ohio, fair this afternoon and ran across this picture that captures a universal fair experience. I’m sure you could see the same thing at the Southeast Missouri District Fair.
If I remember correctly, I covered about 13 fairs like this in The Athens Messenger’s circulation area. And, that’s not counting the settler’s reunions, centennial celebrations, homecomers and high school parades. When Nancy, my help desk person at The Post, wanted to know if I was going to the South Florida Fair, I told her I had long ago been to all the fairs I hoped to ever see in my lifetime.
[Update: I had originally written these photos were taken at Glouster, but my eagle-eyed friends at the Athens Historical Society said they were of the Athens County Fair. I made the mistake because the first negative sleeve said “Glouster Fire” with the word “Fair” on the line under it. I assumed that I had shot both a fire AND a fair in Glouster. All the subsequent rolls just said “Fair.”
See, I can be wrong in more states than just Missouri.
Photo Gallery of Athens Fair
I was going to run just the one photos, but, what the heck, these were already edited. Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the sides of the images to move through the gallery. (You’ll understand, won’t you, if I don’t come along to the fair with you?)
I love fairs still. We found one in Amazonian Peru that was so much like Ohio I felt right at home; except we had guinea pig to eat and everybody spoke Spanish, even the sheep…
The Tilt-A-Whirl! I’m feeling queasy just looking at that photo. If I recall, you could pull that handlebar in one direction or another and make the thing spin around on its own axis while the entire ride/platform was spinning on ITS axis. The stuff of BIGTIME nausea.
Frony shot Triple Ferris Wheels at the SEMO District Fair in the 1950s.
http://www.semissourian.com/blogs/flynch/entry/43171
16 Big Rides, including Dogem, Train, Glider, Octopus, C-Cruise, Spitfire, Roto-Whip, Caterpillar, Roll-O-Plane, Kiddie Rides, Tilt-A-Whirl, Merry-Go-Round, Triple Ferris Wheels.
Take a close look at the grandstand shot. Very few of the guys, if any, are checking out the cutie and her escort, but most of the women are…
Me , Bill Bishop, Jackson Homecomers, Barbeque and the Till-a-whirl! The rest is, well, all over Jackson.
Oh my goodness! Great pictures. I know several people in these pictures and want to make prints and surprise them with a copy. Can I get those copies from you? I tried clicking on the prints and saving them to my phone but it won’t work. I’m sure if I could enlarge the picture of people in the grandstand I could identify many of those people too!
I’ll send you an email.