Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Welcome to Central Pennsyltucky

The Centre Daily Times is running down its "7 wonders of Centre County" (stop laughing!) and of course Beaver Stadium is one. Oh, it's a rich tapestry of northern redneck fantasy and I'm saddened that this is what fellow denizens of my area consider wondrous but hey, I've come to expect it over the years. The most telling sign you're a Pennsylvania redneck? When you consider the Grange Fair "a blast."

"How many fairs do you see around where up to 1,000 families move into ugly green army tents for a week and have a blast?" wrote Jen Lee, of Pleasant Gap, among the many readers who nominated Grange Fair as one of the 7 Wonders of Centre County.

For those of you that have not had the thrill of attending the Grange Fair, I weep for you. I've been there once, a couple years ago, and I have yet to scrub the unmistakable stench of deep fried food off my skin. It's basically a collection of carny folk wanabies trying to con you into "winning" goldfish or fluffy stuffed animals in "games of skill."

But the Fair, as it's popularly called, isn't a private party. Tens of thousands of visitors arrive for the livestock shows, tractor pulls, concerts, exhibits and enough fried, grilled, baked and iced goodies to drain wallets and bust belts.

When the first two events of importance are "livestock shows" and "tractor pulls" you know you've hit redneck paradise. Oh and as for the concerts, yeah it's definitely not 50 cent.

Not an old pic it was taken last year – they just couldn't figure out how to get that new fangled digital camera off the B&W setting

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your article is incomplete without mention of "Grange Fair Babies." You obviously are not from Central Pennsyltucky...

Galen said...

Oh, now there's a term I've not heard of Anon, please enlighten me what are "Grange Fair Babies?" Keep in mind I've been to "the Grange" only once.

PSUgirl said...

I believe that it would be the children born in late May/early June of the following year.

I've stayed at the Grange Fair - but in a camper - not a tent.