I've been to a local county fair on two occasions within the last few weeks.  One in the county were I reside, the other an adjoining county.  This past weekend I attended another within a larger nearby city.

My disappointment was with all.  I remember as a young person attending the fair, enjoying it, and wanting to go back everyday it was present.  That is far from the case for me now.  Because I'm old?  Because my feet hurt?  Because I have a greater value for the all mighty $$?  I doubt that!  It just doesn't feel like the same experience to me anymore.  The lack of animals, local businesses, schools raising money via home-made foods, exhibits, crafts, etc.  The community has a clear lack of engagement.  It seems it is little more than a "carnival" these days.

I found myself complaining to my significant other.  I had to stop myself, as I'm very much a believer in proposing solutions rather than sitting around griping as if another owns a problem.

I have decided I would like to host an exhibit with "old tools".  I will work to define a scope and prepare myself during the next 12 months, and hope that at least one other will appreciate them as I do.

QuoteI have decided I would like to host an exhibit with "old tools".

Sounds like a great idea!

A local guy would bring five or six fly wheel engines to the fair, have them running every evening.  I would stand there for an hour, looking, listening, and BSing with him.  A tool board, assortment of monkey wrenches and pipe wrenches, especially those huge oil field wrenches you have, and there would be people stopping and looking.   Maybe a little sign on the counter with, We Buy Old Tools. 

Oily, It sounds like a great idea!!  My only experience at a fair was about ten yrs. ago when the wife and I went to the NY state fair in Syracuse.  I don't remember the carnival part but I'll never forget seeing chickens with feathers all the way down there legs and out onto their feet.

The other memorable event,  was admiring the ability of the drivers of the 6 and 8 horse teams to get those horses to perform so well together.  They even backed them up!  And for a fairly long distance too.  The wagons they were pulling were works of art in there own right.

Just writing this makes me want to go back again.

Good luck with the project Oily.  I think people will enjoy your exhibit...whatever it may be.

Mike

I live in Wellington , Ohio where the Lorain County fair is hosted. Glad to say it's really old time atmosphere here.
Has all that you say is missing at the ones you attended. The whole town participates in some way , and a lot of the businesses shut down to display at the fair. Very much youth oriented.
The fair is followed by the Lagrange engine show 1 month later , almost as big an attraction as the fair.
13 steam engines this year , not an empty spot anywhere on the grounds.
When you walk through the gate you enter a different world. Didn't hear a harsh word in three days,
and old tools every where !
This is part of the reason I moved to this area , when I came to visit I could feel the difference.
Oily , your idea may cause others to follow  , and get some younger folks interested.
I think you should consider joining the fair board , I know that it makes a difference here having
the right people involved.
Good luck

Quote from: mikeswrenches on September 24, 2013, 06:59:00 AM
Oily, It sounds like a great idea!!  My only experience at a fair was about ten yrs. ago when the wife and I went to the NY state fair in Syracuse.  I don't remember the carnival part but I'll never forget seeing chickens with feathers all the way down there legs and out onto their feet.

The other memorable event,  was admiring the ability of the drivers of the 6 and 8 horse teams to get those horses to perform so well together.  They even backed them up!  And for a fairly long distance too.  The wagons they were pulling were works of art in there own right.

Just writing this makes me want to go back again.

Good luck with the project Oily.  I think people will enjoy your exhibit...whatever it may be.

Mike

You need to do the NY state fair again. There is now a whole area with buggies and agricultural stuff from days gone by. Milk bottles from every county in NY. I thought about asking to make a display of wrenches for the area, but I can't take that time off of work to go up there to explain it to people. If anybody else in NY wanted to sit there for the fair, I would gladly donate wrenches to the display.

Oily, your right, county fairs are really just a joke nowadays here too. The Delaware County was the last good one, but even the last time I went to it, it was a shell of what it used to be.

Oily, I think its were you are. When I lived in Louisiana just north of baton rouge the county fair was totally different then the county fair here in the suburbs of Chicago.

Up here in the suburbs there's been talk of selling the fairgrounds. Its a absolute shame but I sort of see why one mite say that. I would like to see the fair revitalized somehow so they don't have to sell. 

The only good things they had in my mind was a blacksmith display three years ago and a hit an miss engine display two years ago. This year there was nothing like that. There was just a handful of animals(mainly chickens) but I was not impressed by any of them. Each year they have a couple old tractors to.

I think a big part of the fair around here is because the schools do not have a FFA program like my school in Louisiana. Each high school would sponsor a section an show the animals to younger kids. I was showing baby pigs to kids along with set up an cleanup for the fair. That was a good time. There is also not a lot of small town business owners like were I was in Louisiana.

The big attraction at the fair around here is the carnaval rides and the tent that sells shirts with redneck and country sayings(most seem to make fun of rednecks), cheap boots, hats, and clip on belt buckles. Basically people act all redneck for a day.

I think your idea of showing old tools would be great. I really think kids should at least know were we came from. One cool thing is to maybe have a few braces set up were kids an adults could try to drill a hole in some wood just to see what it was like. If you do that I have a couple braces to go to the cause. I might be able to come up with some other small stuff as well.

Fairs are in a transitional stage all over the country it seems.
The Josephine county fair in Grants Pass Oregon is in trouble. They have steadily lost money for 3 years and they are about to cancel it. Meanwhile the Jackson County fair in Medford Oregon next door, is making plenty enough to stay open.

  My BIL is chairman of the Oklahoma State Fair. He got the job when the fair was about totally bankrupt.  He has turned it around, but its a different fair. Its Oklahoma, so 4H animals and rodeo will never go away, but other things have been "citified" to raise money. Some people complain, but then there would be no fair without the changes.

  He did put in a waterfall! Imagine that. A sizable 30' waterfall in a place about as likely to have a waterfall as a pancake griddle! I could see the weather coming 3 day off when I was a kid. Its flat flat flat.   
   
  Its really the people who are different now. If the people were the same, the fairs would stay the same, and continue forever. But when people don't support the fair it has to change or die.
    yours Scott   

Oily
We need more young people to be interested in this old stuff or it will all get recycled into who knows what kind of cr*p! Good Luck! tt

Brazoria County Fair celebrating 75 years.
Still has plenty to see and do and draws a great crowd each year.
http://www.brazoriacountyfair.com/default.aspx