A lot of preparation goes into Heritage Fair
Midway rides light up the night sky at the Carolina Foothills Heritage Fair Tuesday.By Ray Chandler
October 4, 2011
FAIR PLAY — The smells and sounds of the fair are already in place, a faint smell of grease from the carnival rides is overpowered by the sweet scent of heated sugar that will end up as candy apple coating or blossom into cotton candy.
But even before the gates opened Tuesday for the first time to the public taking advantage of $1 tickets for all, there was still work to do for this third annual Carolina Foothills Heritage Fair,
The unmistakable smell of livestock reminds that this is an agricultural fair. So does the loud tock-tock of antique diesel tractors being moved into the display line that includes many more antique tractors as well as iron-wheeled hay bailers and even a moveable cotton gin. A breeze riffles the leaves of cotton plants cultivated months ago just for this fair on S.C. 59 north of Fair Play in southern Oconee County.
None of this return to yesteryears happens by itself.
Benny Simpson has worked with carnivals for more than 15 years, ever since leaving Corbin, Ky., as a 16-year-old, putting up and taking down rides at traveling fairs all over the Southeast.
“It was a job at the time, and I didn’t have one,” he said. “You get used to moving around a lot and just get to liking that, so you do it.”
It’s an odd schedule of late nights and sleeping late and quick teardowns after the last night and getting ready for the next move. But it’s habit forming. He’d have a hard time working a 9-to-5 job now, Simpson said.READ MORE:http://www.independentmail.com/news/2011/oct/04/lot-preparation-goes-heritage-fair/
But even before the gates opened Tuesday for the first time to the public taking advantage of $1 tickets for all, there was still work to do for this third annual Carolina Foothills Heritage Fair,
The unmistakable smell of livestock reminds that this is an agricultural fair. So does the loud tock-tock of antique diesel tractors being moved into the display line that includes many more antique tractors as well as iron-wheeled hay bailers and even a moveable cotton gin. A breeze riffles the leaves of cotton plants cultivated months ago just for this fair on S.C. 59 north of Fair Play in southern Oconee County.
None of this return to yesteryears happens by itself.
Benny Simpson has worked with carnivals for more than 15 years, ever since leaving Corbin, Ky., as a 16-year-old, putting up and taking down rides at traveling fairs all over the Southeast.
“It was a job at the time, and I didn’t have one,” he said. “You get used to moving around a lot and just get to liking that, so you do it.”
It’s an odd schedule of late nights and sleeping late and quick teardowns after the last night and getting ready for the next move. But it’s habit forming. He’d have a hard time working a 9-to-5 job now, Simpson said.READ MORE:http://www.independentmail.com/news/2011/oct/04/lot-preparation-goes-heritage-fair/
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