Dirt Parking at the State Fair, Fairgrounds: 2008 2 comments
I suppose it's a silly thing to get pre-nostalgic about, but to me as a child, a big part of the adventure of going to the State Fair was the getting there. The first years I can remember, my father decided that he didn't want to face the hassle of fair traffic and parking fees, so we would catch the SCE&G Fairgrounds bus at, I believe, the corner of Main & Blossom. These were the only times we rode the bus as kids, and it was very exciting!
Later, I think my mother was less than thrilled at riding the bus and we started to drive, but it was still an adventure -- sort of an imperfectly organized chaos where you followed a bunch of cars, hoped you were in the right lane, and then tried to figure out which guy waving a flashlight you were supposed to follow as they invented a parking lot on the fly. Of course if it were dry, the dust would be flying everywhere, and if it had been wet, it was a long slog through the mud, but it never really occurred to me that the Fair should have anything other than a dirt/grass lot.
As you can tell from the pictures though, that's about to end. It appears that next year, we will have a "real" parking lot at the Fairgrounds. Oh well, as long as they still have the rocket and the handwriting analysis computer, my childhood won't be totally gone!
2 Responses to 'Dirt Parking at the State Fair, Fairgrounds: 2008'
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Dennis
24 Apr 09 at 4:22 am
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I remember the racing, too. The big one was called the Palmetto Trials. My parents took me for a few years. Max Hirsch was a well-known trainer who wintered his racing string at the fairgrounds. Somewhere in between the races, there was a donkey race, with local business leaders riding and trying to get the donkeys to run in the right direction. Of course, hilarity ensued. I still have the printed programs somewhere around here.
Cary
24 Apr 09 at 12:13 pm
When I was little there was a horse racing track in that field, with ancient wooden bleachers.