Guernsey County Fair in 1952
by Beverly Kerr
Memories of an early visit to the Guernsey County Fair many years ago, spring to life as another fair season nears. All the students from our one room school were taken by bus from Indian Camp to the fairgrounds. At that time only grades 5-8 went to the Hopewell School. That made over 40 students on the bus.
Mom had given me a dollar to spend at the fair. “Spend it carefully,” she told me, “as it has to last you all day.” I placed it in my change purse with two secret quarters I had saved from my birthday.
When we got to the fairgrounds, we first explored the cattle barns because some of our classmates had projects there. Then it was on to the 4-H displays, where I had a project in the Hopewell Merry Maids booth. It was my first year in 4-H and I had made a tablecloth and napkins.
The smell of french fries soon became irresistible and my first purchase of the day at 15¢ was a cone filled with french fries. I put vinegar all over them. They were sooooo good.
Then we decided to go on some rides. It was Kids Day and all rides were 10¢. We started off with the merry-go-round, then on to the octopus, swings twice, and Ferris wheel twice. What fun! You could see the whole fairgrounds from the top of the Ferris wheel.
The smell of the hot roasted peanuts drifted up through the air, so my next purchase was a bag of hot roasted peanuts still in their shells. These were shared with the other students, and we had fun putting the shells in our mouth to get that salty flavor before cracking them open to eat the nuts inside.
Soon, we boarded the caterpillar ride. That was when the trouble began.
As that ride went on a winding path, a cover came over the cars making everything pitch black. A whole lot of screaming went on! When we got off the caterpillar, I discovered my change purse was missing.
“Wait!” I called to the operator, “let me check the seat to see if my change purse fell out there.” But there was no change purse. It wasn’t a big loss as I only had two quarters left. I had saved it to buy some cotton candy before we went home.
All of a sudden, I noticed that a little red-haired girl, the one who sometimes took my potato chips at school, had some extra money and was buying cotton candy. That made me suspicious as she was in the seat with me on the caterpillar, but I had no proof.
“Time to load up the bus to head back to school,” Mrs. Clark called as she walked around the grounds. There was even an announcement over the public speaker saying, “Students from Hopewell School need to report to their bus immediately.”
When we got on the bus, that little red-haired girl sat across the aisle from me and asked, “Would you like to share some of my cotton candy?”
Since I figured I had paid for it anyway, I took some of it. Guess that pink sugary treat helped ease the pain for me. I just had to ask her, “Where did you get the money for this cotton candy? I thought you said you had spent all you brought.”
“Oh, I found some money on the ground,” was her quick answer.
I still had a fun time at the fair but never forgot my change purse being taken. Still have a little difficulty trusting someone with red hair.
