See You at the Fair

Every year at this time I get excited to attend the local county fairs. I love every thing about them except the corndogs and blue cotton candy. I love the animals, the giant vegetables, the quilts, the canned goods, the local artwork and the carnival rides. Well maybe just the carnival signage... I don't really like the rides. (see previous post on carnival signage here!) 
     Truth be known, I was a 4-H girl for many years and exhibited at the county fairs in my youth. I once did a presentation with giant visual aids on the history of the horse and won a blue ribbon. To my horror, I was expected to present my "pony show" several weeks later at the Washington State Fair in 1968. There I stood, frozen, holding a microphone and flipping my enormous hand-colored visual aids of miniature horses from the pleistocene era, in an enormous barn full of giant vegetables and passers-by. Not one person stopped to listen to my "livestockumentary" on the horse. I was so embarrassed to be upstaged by giant watermelons and squash, it is a wonder I still love The Fair. To my delight, I found these wonderful 1960s county fair posters from Northern California displayed in Grickily's Flickrstream. They are great examples of the fairs of my youth and the many silkscreen posters which were widely printed by union shops during that era. I love the great mash-ups of older font styles and 60s hand lettering styles in bright day-glo colors. You can see it all at the local county fair ; )