Mitregate and missionaries, schisms and trials. But it's the heat of summer and we have to leave all that. And everyone should go to the fair!San Diego is the 7th or 8th largest city in the country. You'd think all were urban, given that, but we have a great county fair held at Del Mar's fairgrounds, close to the city, that brings together the entire county. It is, hands down, the best county fair in the state.
Everyone from the Mexican-American kids in Barrio Logan to the suburban faculty brats in University city to the 4-H kids from East County go the fair. It's a great democratizer, where languages and classes mingle. There is food (funnel cakes, fried "bloomin' onions", and deep fried 
snickers), carnival rides and coasters, carny attractions (world's largest steer!) , farm competitions and displays (dairy goats, pigs, massive bulls). The 4-Hers hope to sell their steers to office groups from downtown. There are competitions for food (pies, cakes, etc), the best county high school newspapers and yearbooks; sewing and knitting and crafts, and collections 
(I took a picture of a "ketchup packet collection" that competed).And plants: orchids, roses, banzais. There are gardening competitions, salesmen selling hot-tubs and kitchen re-dos (you get great deals at the fair). There are hawkers (the Cham-WOW, the appliances that dice-slice-and just about carve the turkey) and craftsmen selling jewelry. Cooking demos, and people carving a butter sculpture. You can take your picture with a parrot, or in olde time costumes.
A beer garden offers a place to sit while watching the US lose at soccer. City kids get to meet goats and pigs for the first time. All the kids convene at the carny rides, where boys win giant stuffed animals for the girls, and everyone tosses hoops over the coke bottles. There are bungy jumps and cheap UV lighted horror rides, fueled by sodas and corn-dogs.The evenings end with concerts by almost-has-beens and up-n-comers, fireworks, and sleepy kids stuffed with bad food, clutching their stuffed animals and kettlecorn as they take the bus back to the car.
Ah, summer.
5 comments:
Drove by it four times shuttling between LA, officiating at a wedding in La Jolla and taking the kids to Legoland. All in all, I'd rather been taking the kids to pet the goats and the calves and the sheep and the pigs. Sounds like a place where we could put down our traditionalist versus progressive Episcopalian cudgels and drink some beer and eat roast corn with chili and lime.
God bless you and think about getting to the LA County Fair in September--though its too damn hot in Pomona-- or the Ventura County Fair in August that's right by the beach like Del Mar.
--a rare bird in the Diocese of LA
go ahead and add "odd" to the rare bird moniker
odd bird priest in the Diocese of LA
Here (now) in Sacra-tomato, I look forward to the State Fair! ;-)
Welcome home, JCF.
Thanks, IT.
Any plans to come North anytime soon? ;-/
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