My friend/next-door neighbor and I made our annual visit to the Rensselaer County fair, more commonly called The Schaghticoke Fair (pronounced Ska-ti-coke) because of the town where it's located. I wrote about our trip to the fair last year. There was more story telling and less photos in that post.
Just like last year, the weather couldn't have been better. Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends are the best times of year in these parts.
The map is about where I start to "do" the fair. Directly to the right is the fundraising food booth of a local volunteer fire department. I get the same thing every year...hot sausage with peppers and onions, fries, and a soda...sometimes I get another order of the same thing before I leave (but this year I was good).
Exhibits
This is still a country fair and Rensselaer county is quite rural. Folks enter their arts-n-crafts, vegetables, and just about everything under the sun to get a ribbon. In all my years, I never understand why some get the blue ribbon while my choices receive nothing. Hmph.
In the building with a blacksmith pounding away at a metal rod with a hammer and anvil, there was this horse drawn Freihofer's bread cart. The Freihofer Baking Company is the area's largest bread maker and have been around for ages. I'm not sure how far they ever expanded. They were bought by Entenmann's many years ago.
Animals
The first pic is a foal nursing, and the second is a type of goat with no external ears. Did you know that goats, sheep, and octopi are the only animals with horizontal-shaped pupils. (Small cats and foxes have vertical-shaped pupils, while lions and wolves have round pupils even though they are in the same respective families.)
Midway
Pretty standard stuff that you'd find at a county fair. Impossible-to-win games that promise enormous stuffed animals as the prize. There were lots of food booths selling everything imaginable and tons of sweets. Another local volunteer fire department has a fundraising food booth that specializes in fried dough. It is so large it is served covering two paper plates and goes for $3.25. I can only eat about half. Nothing else unique. I didn't see anything being sold on a stick!
The rides were also standard...I'm not a fan of rickety, weekly-assembled rides designed to make you sick so I just watch and stand clear of the hurl. I can do most of the rides at Disney parks, though.
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Schaghticoke Fair 2008
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9 comments:
GREAT pics! And what a beautiful day! Did you have some 'fun' in that Fun House???
1. Moooo! Sorry, I have bovilexia.
2. What, no Elephant Ears?
3. Given the pictures painted on the side, exactly what sort of fun is to be had in that fun house anyway??
4. Oh, and by the way, Moooo!!
That looks like a lovely day out Gavin. And the pics of Les Animaux! Lovely.
Well, that means I've been reading your blog for at least a year, because I can remember last year's post on the fair. After all, I'm not likely to forget a word like Schaghticoke.
MMMmm, fried dough.
The deep fried swiss cheese is just as good.
now this makes me regret when the bf and i visited kaua'i, we didn't go to to county fair.
he wanted to, but i was tired on the evening he asked if i wanted to go. there really is *nothing* like a local fair.
Love the poultry! That's what I go to our local fair to see. And if you haven't had a tortato, you haven't had great junk food! Tortato = put a potato on a lathe and shave it into a long, continuous thin slice, then fry the resulting heap of thin potato goodness. 29 oinks on the Sooey! Scale...
--Alex
Looks finer than our STATE Fair...a FAIR in an agricultural area can ALWAYS be fun.......and take me back to those kid days. The final days of summer, oh NO !!!
I love the prize-winning cocks! No, really. I remember going to the Indiana State Fair with my friend Jerry, and the cocks were amazing! And there were more than you could count! Unfortunately, Jerry had just smoked a spliff and got all freaked out by all the barnyard animals. People were taking pictures of their kids in front of the prize winning hog's balls. It was kinda weird, but that's the State Fair.
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