The Minnesota State Fair is upon us, so this week we want to hear about your fair memories, wherever they happened.
Here's what we heard:
Diana from Grand Rapids wrote, "As a 4-Her, the state fair was a big part of my life growing up. After a seven hour school bus ride from Roseau County, we would haul our stuff up to the dorms on the third floor of the 4-H building. Then we were free to roam the fair for almost three days with very little supervision. We even got to see a free grandstand show. My first concert was Styx in 1979 when I was 14. Unforgettable!"
Elaine texted from Chisholm, "In the 1970s, during college at the U of M, one year I worked at the Minnesota State Fair. It was a stretch of hot, dusty weather. At the Frontier Bar, I cooked hamburgers and poured beer from long-neck bottles into plastic state fair cups. I worked, showered, slept, put on a clean uniform and stumbled the next day to do it again." She also told us that she went to her first concert at the state fair: Neil Diamond.
Steve in St. Paul said, "I'm all about the shows. I'm near Como, so I bike over. I saw Maggie Rose on Saturday and will be at the Leinie Lodge for Marky Ramone on Thursday and Senisonic on Sunday. In the recent past I've seen En Vogue, Blue Oyster Cult, Jayhawks, and Marty Stuart. And that's just one of the free stages. Hot tip! On Instagram, follow State Fair as they do a $13 pre-sale in November so I bought a dozen tickets. They make a great Christmas present too!"
Dave from Bloomington echoed the free entertainment. "The free music stages throughout the fair are the best thing! I [have seen] so many phenomenal acts over the years, including Corey Medina and Brothers and Mae Simpson."
Our staff phenologist John Latimer has visited the Minnesota State Fair only a few times, but he has a memory of being 12 or 13 years old with his younger brother. "We're walking down the midway and there's this game where you put a dime on a color and they let loose a ball and it bounces around. And if it lands on the color that you have a dime on, you get a prize. Well, my brother and I each threw down a dime and it landed on my brother's color and he got a pack of unfiltered Kools for his prize. The guy just slapped down this pack of cigarettes and my brother and I looked at that like, 'whoa!" When asked if they kept them, John said, "We took them about 10 feet and my dad took them from us and threw him in the trash.” You can listen to John tell the story by clicking above.
Beyond the Minnesota State Fair, we heard from our music producer Malachy Koons, who grew up in Wisconsin. He said, "My birthday always happened during the Vernon County Fair so each year my birthday party would begin at the fair. One year we figured out how to con the bulldozer game with a special metal hook. Some of us would distract the carnies while the the others extracted (stole) the coins which we proceeded to gamble away until we had to take more. Eventually they caught on and called the cops on us. Shout out to my friend (who shall remain anonymous) who took the fall."
Do you have fair memories to share? Let us know!