Throughout the summer, in rural America, many counties hold a party. County fairs are a tradition that gives locals a chance to enjoy themselves. Deschutes County, which is located in the heart of Oregon, is no different. Over the years, we have become more sophisticated at throwing a party. Our fair operates normally late in July, and in 2015 ran from July 29 through August 2. This ritual of summer celebration has been taking place here for over 90 years. The current 132-acre site is much larger than the location I remember as a child. Furthermore, according to their website, it is claimed that, "This year's County Fair will give you more for your money". The typical Central Oregonian loves a bargain, and the organization running the fair …show more content…
uses that information to attract more visitors. Often we equate the amount of money spent to the opinion of whether something is a good value, or not. Based upon how I was raised finding a bargain is one means of evaluating value. However, that never was the only means to measure value. This raises the question, what values are at the county fair. The website for the Fair stated that it was "jam packed" with entertainment, and it was quite accurate.
There were so many choices of what to do that it made it impossible for me to attend everything. One of the attention grabbers they use every year jumped out immediately. Good music is always a great attraction. In years past, some of my favorites have performed at the Fair. I enjoyed the night we went and heard an aging Three Dog Night perform, and for a couple hours, I felt as if I was seventeen once again. The practice continued this year. There were four major musical groups at the fair. This included Hinder, Martina McBride, America, and Joe Nichols. To our rural audience at a county fair this was quite a treat. For our bargain hunting values, it was incredible, since the price of admission was …show more content…
free. Of course free does not come without a cost. First, there is the admission price to get in the fair itself, which ran $12 for an adult. Comparing this to the $79 Disney charges for admission the cost is insignificant. Unfortunately, there was one caveat in obtaining the "free" tickets to the concerts. McDonalds, in Central Oregon, were the sponsor of the concerts. Giving away tickets was a way for them to get us to visit their mass production plants, which have served billions and billions of burgers. Visit a fast food restaurant is torture, but the lyrics of America's "A Horse with No Name" beckoned me: “I have been to the desert on a horse with no name.” Those lyrics have always resonated with me. Deschutes County is my home, located in the high desert of Central Oregon. With great pride, I recall my childhood on the high desert, near what is now set aside as the Oregon Badlands Wilderness. Spellbound, I would sell my soul and visit McDonalds, and then go to the fair. Upon ones arrival at the fairgrounds, the first item to take care of is finding a place to park. This is not a trivial task, since failure to remember where your car is located can mean hours spent searching for it. My wife was driving, and informed me she was going to park in section "B". Section "B" is close to the entrance and with us planning to spend hours walking around a close location was preferred. Entering the parking area, we could see that section "B" covered several acres. Towering 50-foot poles had "B" written on them, with the words “Black Butte” underneath, covered the grassy field. A closer examination determined all the “B” signs had Black Butte on them. There was no way to tell one sign from another. These signs, which were supposed to guide us back to our car, were of little value. Quickly, I was able to assess one of the basic tendencies of human nature that helped us. The farthest pole from the entrance had a four-wheel drive pickup underneath it, and there was plenty of room for us to park. This made it possible to be fairly close to the entrance, with the safety of knowing where to find our transportation once our visit to the fair was complete. Today we were not going to any concerts, rodeos, shows or exhibits.
That had been done on earlier visits. As we began, making our way into the heart of the booths the large buildings used for exhibits stood on the right hand side. In the past, I had always wanted to go look at the 4H exhibits. Although that was not on the agenda this day I noticed that the farm, animals were not in those buildings at the front of the fair. Instead, far in the distance, I could see farm looking buildings. A clever piece of placement, if I have ever seen one. Those who have experienced the pungent odors that spew forth from the 4H area will know the familiar odor. There are times the smell of urine is so strong that you would love to have some bleach dowsed up your nose to kill the smell. The organizers understood that there is nothing like having a cocktail of farm animal urine and feces odors hitting you first thing off to take some of the wind out of an otherwise positive experience. We might be rural, but we still know what is bad for
business. By avoiding those barnyard smells, we were on track to enjoy some fair food. Positioned on the main walkway was a Young Life booth, filled with half a dozen teens peddling BBQ sandwiches. An empty stomach enhanced my appetite, and instead of taking a few minutes to look around at what other choices were available, I rushed the booth. An exuberant young man greeted me, and smoothly upsold us into one of those full meal deals. Instead of a $4 sandwich, I now had purchased a sandwich, corn on the cob, and diet soda. The $7 price tag stroked my ego, since I had such a great value. The diet drink was nice and cold. The corn on the cob was warm, and tasty. The sandwich, well it looked like precooked BBQ meat put on a cheap hot dog bun. I quickly took it to the condiment stand and smothered it in more BBQ sauce, erasing what I had bought from my mind. Wandering through a maze of gaming booths, with attendants announcing that there was a winner every time, we continued past them. Beyond the gaming booths, an area designated for merchants had been set up. How those peddlers managed to find so much meretricious merchandise, and then cover their booths with it amazed me. It appeared as if they had searched many warehouses full of garish wares, in order to have merchandise to sale. Ahead a sign announced "Pet IDs Sold", and like a dog on a leash, we obediently followed. A wall faced us, covered with signs about guns, death and God. In spite of the terrifying message, the leash remained firmly attached. Moving into the booth the signs clearly promoted a message about guns helping people meet God. However, we were not in the mood to explore different religions. Instead, we found our way to the pet merchandise. The overpriced plaque of an English Springer Spaniel caught our attention. I grabbed the plaque, holding it so the world would see we had Springers. Two of our dogs needed collars with some means of identification, and this religious merchant had the perfect product. At the cashier’s counter metal tags were on display that could be riveted to collars. This was exactly what our dogs needed, since the tags that dangled loosely from collars always got tore off. The price for all of our merchandise was about $50. The collars and tags sale online for $6 each. It was poor value, if one only considers the price. However, our dogs now had their names and my phone number on them, in case they got lost. Value has to be more than just about money, and the feeling of protecting our dogs made it worthwhile. Furthermore, if we had not visited that booth we would not know of this religion sweeping over our country. With trinkets in hand, and food smeared down my shirt and pants from my efforts at eating overly buttered corn on the cob, we moved toward the exit. The farm buildings used by 4H, to show their animals, remained in the distant. Memories of an old woman on a poster, pointing her gun at me and telling me I was about to meet Jesus ran through my head. Next, the words of “America” came to me, as I walked to where towards our parking space. “In the desert you cannot remember your name.” At that moment something inside me broke. Our name speaks about who we are. Somehow, here on the high desert of Central Oregon, we have forgotten who we are. The rural life of my childhood evolved into something meretricious. We no longer allowed the 4H animals to smell up our experience. The faith of my childhood no longer existed in this desert, instead some violent, perverted religion that seemed to think it a laughing matter to threaten the life of others, has taken root. Outside the fairgrounds, the Confederate flag flies on vehicles and from houses, as Central Oregonians swear allegiance to traitors and racists. Meanwhile, the crowd saunters along and there is no uproar. I watch as people I once admired embrace these values that have taken root, like a cancer, in Deschutes County.
In the annals of World's Fairs, the 1901 Buffalo fair is listed, as a matter of record. However, it is one of the lesser-remembered fairs. This is not due to a lack of planning or physical appeal, but rather to the fact that on September 6, 1901, President William McKinley was shot and killed at the Temple of Music. This was the kind of event that is so infamous and carries such bad press that it condemns everything it touches, from the setting, the surrounding events, and the people involved, to the same black blanket of notoriety. Due to the President's assassination, the popularity of the Fair spiraled downward. Despite the deploring of the Fair, however, it was home to some remarkable buildings.
...the people of the US a glimpse of alien cultures that many of them had never heard of, much less seen and learned about. In a way, the fair was a cultural awakening for most of the people of the United States. Suddenly, people from Missouri could tell their friends and families that they had seen Camels, or men from Japan. 27 million people went to see the fair, the vast majority of them Americans. That was a little less than half of the population of the country at this time. That many people seeing cultures and people that many had never heard of would have caused a dramatic effect, transforming the people of this country into a more cultured, worldly people.
The Industrial Revolution in America began to develop in the mid-eighteen hundreds after the Civil War. Prior to this industrial growth the work force was mainly based in agriculture, especially in the South (“Industrial Revolution”). The advancement in machinery and manufacturing on a large scale changed the structure of the work force. Families began to leave the farm and relocate to larger settings to work in the ever-growing industries. One area that saw a major change in the work force was textile manufacturing. Towns in the early nineteen hundreds were established around mills, and workers were subjected to strenuous working conditions. It would take decades before these issues were addressed. Until then, people worked and struggled for a life for themselves and their families. While conditions were harsh in the textile industry, it was the sense of community that sustained life in the mill villages.
Small towns, quaint and charming, ideally picturesque for a small family to grow up in with a white picket fence paired up with the mother, father and the 2.5 children. What happens when that serene local town, exuberantly bustling with business, progressively loses the aspects that kept it alive? The youth, boisterous and effervescent, grew up surrounded by the local businesses, schools and practices, but as the years wear on, living in that small town years down the road slowly grew to be less appealing. In The Heartland and the Rural Youth Exodus by Patrick J. Carr and Maria Kefalas equally argue that “small towns play an unwitting part in their own decline (Carr and Kefalas 33) when they forget to remember the “untapped resource of the
Southern Ohio Fair Association. Annual Southern Ohio Fair at Dayton, Ohio. Dayton: United Brethen Publishing House, 1878. Print.
The “White City” was a vast collection of architecture and arts that were put on display in the year 1893. The Chicago World Fair, also called the “White City”, was a major event in American history that impacted America’s culture, economic, and industry. The Chicago World Fair was held to honor Columbus’ discovery of the New World. The real reason why it was made was to proudly have back their wealth and power. Larson said, “the tower not only assured the eternal fame of its designer, Alexandre Gustave Eiffel but also offered graphic proof that France had edged out the United States for dominance in the realm of iron and steel…”(15). To accomplish this, architects led by Daniel Burnham and John Root made numerous buildings and beautiful scenery
The World’s Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World’s Fair, was an event celebrating American invention and innovation on the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s discovery of America. The fair was open for six months and was visited by an estimated 27.5 million people. The Fair was a major influence on the spirt invention associated with the Gilded Age, but it was also influenced by the spirit of the time.
This photograph is a 3 X 5 black and white silver gelatin print. This is one of a collection of sixteen taken by the photographer, Gabriel Moulin. This picture is an aerial shot which gives a bird's eye view of the fair. From this overhead, one can easily see the layout of the fair with its various buildings, as well as the location of the island within the blue crystalline waters of the Pacific, ...
Fair in Texas that comes to Dallas every fall. I haven’t been since I was very
...re problems with the buildings such as fire, and more storms. However, those events didn’t stop the people from coming and seeing what the fair had to offer. It took several big events to get mass crowds of people, such as a ball at the midway and fireworks on the Fourth of July. In one day the fair had 751,026 people in attendance, from people who paid at the gate and others who had passes . The problems that occurred during the building of the fair did not hurt attendance, and the fair was a success, changing America along the way.
image on Exposition souvenirs was ideal in light of the fair's theme - our nation's 150th
Rawlinson, J. (2013). Music Festival Tourism Worldwide - International - June 2013. Retrieved 02 28, 2014, from Mintel Report: http://academic.mintel.com/display/643783/
The fair demanded 630 acres of land to be held on in Jackson Park and the
This was my first Jazz event I had ever been to. I went to see the band The Chairman and the Board. This was a blues swing band. Having been to other concerts, I was expecting something similar as far as atmosphere and crowd. I was proved very wrong as this concert defied all my expectations and was in a whole different field as far as life entertainment goes. The first thing I noticed right off the bat was the audience. The age range of this audience was mainly 40-70. I definitely felt like the odd man out when I was there. It did get me thinking though, why was this audience so much older? I looked into the era of when most of those people were born, which was roughly around the years 1935-1980. I came to find out that in the 1940s bebop jazz had been created and swing music was very popular. Also at this time cool jazz emerged. It appears the 1940s were a wonderful time for jazz. In the 60s, Cuban jazz appeared. Every year there was something new and on the cutting edge in jazz. I think the reason no young people were there was because jazz is no longer a part of the modern-day music. It's not played on the top hits of the year radios. It's lack of exposure has made young people unaware of its glory. I don't see any advertisements for jazz music on the tv, or social media. I never hear about jazz while listening to the radio. It could be that teens want something to relate to in their music, that also has a catchy beat and modern lyrics. This event was hosted at the only live entertainment specific venue in Big Bear which is the cave. They have concerts there every weekend. This venue was absolutely perfect for this type of band because it was quaint and quiet with a respectful (yet very engaged) audience. I had no problem hearing what the performers were saying, Despite being far from the stage. The lighting at this venue looked like an old school jazz concert
The World's Columbian Exposition, which opened on this date, was the most popular world's fair done on American soil. The fair, a festival by the country and the world of the 400th commemoration of the disclosure of the Americas by Christopher Columbus, had been the subject of a rivalry between Chicago, New York, Washington and St. Louis.