Cultural Experience of the Week
This past Monday I finally attended the Grange Fair. To locals of Centre County, the Grange Fair is a big deal. I had a co-worker who would encourage me to go to it every year and was proud that his wife’s family had their own canvas tent there. Canvas tent, wtf?? He explained the significance of it to me at the time, but I was still not really sure why it was a big deal. Apparently, over the fair’s 136 year history, families would set up tents and live at the fair the whole week it was set up. These coveted tents have been passed down through the families. If one had a desire to camp out in one of these bad boys all week, you can’t. Unless your family owns one. These things are bequeathed to younger generations of Grangers.
I was meeting some friends there and was driving on a two lane road when it came to a dead stop. I still had no idea how far I was from the fair and there weren’t any signs. Some people zipped out from behind and passed on the side of the road. A few minutes pass and I’ve only budged about 20 feet and I started to get nervous and thought, ‘This could be the line for an all-you-can-eat buffet for all I know!’ But 20 minutes and 800 feet later I see a couple of flags on the side of the road with a tiny sign that reads ‘GRANGE FAIR: ENTRANCE 4’. I guess most people don’t need telling where to go, they’ve made the pilgrimage so many times. As I’m approaching the gate, the road crests the top of a hill and all I can see is an expanse of white tents and RV’s, glittering in the afternoon sunlight. I thought, ‘Sweet! I’m totally in! I’ve got my $6 for admission (and only $6)’ the girl collecting money tells me it’s $9 for parking. My face must have looked pretty pitiful because she just said, “Whatever, $6 is fine” and waved me through. I was SO GRATEFUL haha.
I park and start making my way to the entrance of the fair only to get shooed out of the way of a ginormous tractor on the way to the ol’ tractor pull. I got some looks like, “omg, doesn’t she know this path is for tractors only?” I think a sign like this would be appropriate:
My friends and I were trying to find each other on the phone like, “Ok, I see some tractors and a scary carny ride called The Ring of Fire…”, “Ok, we’re in the main food area…” and we decide to meet there. What we didn’t realize is that there were food booths everywhere! As I’m walking down what I first thought to be the only lane, I start looking around and tents with sausage and ice cream and popcorn and french fries branch off in all directions, and there are two parallel lanes (that I could see at least) of more sausage and ice cream and popcorn and french fries. Luckily, we found each other pretty quickly.
The livestock are a big part of the fair and we got to see humongous chickens, roosters, cows, and bunnies. Bubba here was my favorite:
(His name is the black and pink paper, it’s hard to read in this pic)
I wouldn’t eff with Bubba. I’d imagine he’d make a good bouncer or maybe a linebacker. There were a couple of other bunnies that were also bigger than most domestic cats. Damn!
We got to tour the sacred tent land at the fair, too. It was funny to see the insides of tents set up like someone’s family room. Couch, TV, tables, rugs, etc. Most were decorated with lights and other knick-knacks and home decorations. Some people had small kitchens set up in the back, complete with refrigerator and small, portable range tops.
I can imagine how this would be the best thing ever if you are a kid. Living at a fair for a week and eating french fries and ice cream? Hells yes!
I’m so glad I went, it was so different from anything else I’d normally do.
