Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Our World: The San Benito County Fair


I never gave much thought to the definition of county fair. Nor did I ever wonder if the term was even in the dictionary. Until last night, that is.  In honor of the San Benito County Fair this weekend (October 3, 4, and 5), I thought I'd feature it every day this week, but, as usual, without a plan about what to post. And, when in a mire about what to write, I reach for the dictionary and if the dictionary inspires naught, the encyclopedia.


According to Merriam Webster, the term county fair is a noun.  It originated in 1856. It means "a fair usually held annually at a set location in a county especially to exhibit local agricultural products and livestock."   Oxford Dictionaries.com defines county fair one better: "A competitive exhibition of livestock, agricultural products, and household skills held annually by a town, county, or state and also featuring entertainment and educational displays."

 
The San Benito County Fair is held at Bolado Park, eight miles south of Hollister. According to the May 10, 1938 issue of the Free Lance,  in 1922, some folks asked Julia Bolado Davis if they could hold a county fair on part of her property. She said yes and the rest was history.


Today, I'm linking up with Our World Tuesday. I invite you to come check out posts by other bloggers around the world. Please click here


P.S. Here's the link to yesterday's post about the San Benito County Fair. By the way, I have no idea what I'll write about tomorrow.



8 comments:

  1. Now that's a real County Fair in the true sense of the term. :)

    Is that a who's-pumpkin-is-bigger-competition in the first pic. I've wanted to go see those really big pumpkins. One we'd planned to to see the Pumpkin fest in San Mateo County And it flopped. We we stuck on the road for 4 hours. And considering the bad traffic we were stuck in, parking issues a the venue and the 2 hours for the fest to shut down, we had to turn back the moment we found a break in the (road) divider. :(

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    1. Yup, you got it. That's the biggest pumpkin competition. My first year back, I planted pumpkin seeds with the intention of entering it in the competition but nothing happened. Once we're out of this drought, I'll try it again.

      Hope you'll be able to make it to a pumpkin fest this year. If you're in my neck of the woods, check out the Swank Farm Corn Maze or Casa de Fruta Pumpkin Junction, or Uesugi Farms Pumpkin Park in Morgan Hill. Traffic may not be so bad.

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  2. What a wonderful fair. Those pumpkins are huge!

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  3. A perfect week for a county fair ("târg") where it can be found so many goodies that I've seen in pics...pumpkins, huge ones, and jars with pickles and marmalades and jams and so on... wonders... Lovely day to you!

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  4. This fair looks like such fun! And those pumpkins sure look HUGE!

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