33 Comments on “A Day at the Darke County Fair: A Photo Set”

1. Looks like SOMEBODY was too sissy to ride the pirate ship himself.

2. More like too cheap to buy the tickets for it.

3. I found the picture of the deep fried pickle to be somewhat disturbing. Besides that, it looked like a fun day at the fair.

4. I grew a first-place pumpkin when I was a kid. 83 pounds.

   (The world record is 1,689 pounds. But mine made lots of pies and one heck of a jack-o-lantern.)

5. Nice pics. Some of your pics strike me as having a rather wicked sense of humor. Sort of like burritos made the American way (ahem). Or the fact your country only has 2 democrats?

   Or maybe that’s just me.

6. But were there deep fried twinkies?

   (ohmygawd, they are tasty)

7. I think “The Darke County Fair” (sb Faire, non?) sounds like the setting of Something Wicked This Way Comes.

8. Ok, is it just me, or did that deep fried pickle look a little bit reptilian to anyone else?

9. @8: Yes. I thought it looked like a Godzilla pod.

10. @8/9: It was a “pod pickle” :)

11. I think I see the edge of my mother in one of your photos – which day were you there?

12. More like too cheap to buy the tickets for it.

    I’ve heard better excuses.

13. @11: I’m just guessing, but I’ll bet it was Tuesday the 25th. The “Junior Fair Bake-A-Rama” was at 9:00 AM.

14. AJ: Good call – I will have to follow up with her vicinity to the fried pickle cart on the day in question.

15. I’ll see you the deep fried pickle and raise you a pork-chop-on-a-stick at the Iowa State Fair. Now that was fine cuisine!

16. I was going to gush about how good (and bad for me) fried pickle chips are until I saw it was a whole fried dill pickle. That’s wrong.

    Pickles should be sliced before battering and frying, then served with ranch dressing.

17. Wow, you’re lucky. I couldn’t even find the county Democrat’s booth at the Miami County fair last weekend. Although I did find a booth selling deep fried oreos..

18. So how did you decide which pictures were worthy of arty black-and-white?

19. No, no, no; he had to forgo the pirate ship so that he could take pictures of it. It was a sacrifice, but had to be done in the name of Art.

20. Xopher@7: I particularly admire that there’s a town named Arcanum in Darke County. It’s probably misdirection; people would think it too obvious for there to be occult activity there.

21. Ha. I was just there on Saturday. I saw on Twitter that you too succumbed to the siren call of the funnel cake…

22. My wife and I took our daughter to a local fair late last month. In the era of inpersonal entertainment — where everyone sits passively in front of screens, being ‘fed’ stuff through their ears and eyes — it’s somewhat comforting to know that ‘The Fair’ still occurs, that people still go, and that everyone can have a generally good time.

    Oh, and the pirate ship ride gives me the willies. Especially if you sit way up in back, so the drop sensation on the way down is more pronounced. Urk! And to think I once dreamed of being an astronaut.

    Give me the tilt-o-whirl! Centripital gees, OK. Near-zero, zero, or negative gees? Merp. Unk. Glirb.

23. Oh, nostalgia! I haven’t been to a county fair in ages. Spinny rides and deep fried food ftw!

24. Oh man, the zipper. When I was 10 or so, my brother bribed me to go on the zipper with him by promising to buy me whatever I wanted the rest of the night at the fair. I screamed and cried the whole time (embarrassing him tremendously, as a school chum was in the next cage over) and then all he could afford to buy me was a thing of french fries and a half pound of fudge.

25. me hats off to Krissy for being brave enough to get on that thing.

    me…well…all those kids would have been screaming for a reason. As in, “Halp! Halp! Stop the ride! Stop the ride! I’m covered in vomit! Stop the ride! Please, somebody stop the ride!”

26. Every time you remind us that you live in Darke County (cue foreboding music), I expect you to reveal that you’ve got a guy named Barnabas living under your back porch.

27. Sigh, and it’s still two weeks to the LA County Fair……..

28. #19

    Art can take his own damn pictures.

29. I’m going to the California State Fair next week, and the parts I like are the ones that are most county-fair-ish. So several years back I went looking for Flickr groups that got that Fair vibe and you know what? Almost every single one was just ride pictures, and I wanted to have the pigs and chickens and winning quilts and county exhibits and all the stuff that you can only get at a fair, not the stuff of amusement parks.

    So I started a group called County Fair and invited a dozen friends. I, uh, guess that’s pimping, but really, I think those Athena photos would be prime because I don’t think there’s any of competitors.

30. Styx is still alive?

31. The “I’m so high” rabbit made my day.

32. Allow me to compliment you on your mad photography skillz! Great pictures, each and every one.

33. Our family used to go to the Darke County fair most years since it coincided with my grandmother’s birthday and the family reunion. I don’t think I’ve been there since the mid80s. I remember: hexagonal funnel cakes, taffy pulling, horse racing (sulkies?), and lots of spinny vomity rides. I should go back sometime and recheck my memory bank.