Post from the Past - Pinal County Fair

Pinal County Fair in Casa Grande, Az
May 3, 2012

The Pinal County Fair had a lot going for it from the start. They had a lot of rides, and games and I’m sure there were a lot of good vendors. I say “I’m sure they did” because I went up on Sunday the last day of the fair, and this particular day there was a storm that was very impressive by Arizona standards. And many of the vendors had no choice but to close early, much to their chagrin. In a state that boasts over 300+ days of sunshine, there was no sunshine that day. It was March, and it was COLD, and wet, and down-right windy.

What they did have was Nancy and her adorable bird show. She has one bird that can talk up a storm! (chuckles no pun intended) that bird knows words and can make the corresponding sound, “What’s a cat say?” “Meow” “What’s a dog say?” “Bark bark” “What’s a big dog say?” “BARK BARK” very funny. One of her parrots rides a swing upside down. She clearly loves her birds, and they love her back. I couldn’t believe she was able to fight through the storm and give us two solid shows, she was able to work between the sprinkles and we all stayed to watch, most wrapped in blankets and dancing around to stay warm, but we stayed =)

They had some monkeys that have been in movies like “Evan Almighty” and some commercials, and they were quite funny, Dagney is cute with her “hat exchange” and Azumah was impressive; they had an adorable Capuchin monkey in a diaper. LOL The hosts were so wonderful, I liked how they were just enjoying the day, even though everything started blowing away and they had to contend with a rather loud ice cream engine nearby. I liked the dog. No I am not going to give you a blow by blow of this show, you really need to see it!! I love shows where they have animals and I learn about their behaviors while watching them play.

Poor George Johnson the amazing Equal Opportunity singer, every time he tried to sing, it rained. Not kidding, he opened his mouth, started the music, poured!! You can’t sing outside like that, he had to go home early. I have heard him a few times in the past, he is AMAZING. And I would have loved to hear him this time, but what can you do when the rains try to short out your speakers?

Then Calamity Jo and her safety magic show was forced indoors because of the same storm, and even then she was moved from one side of the building to the next, not her doing, just the mad rush of people and booths trying hard to get out of the rain and stormy weather… which was actually funny to observe if I can get you to picture this. The storm let up, we all ran outside and watched a show, then a thick cloud blew overhead and rained, we all ran indoors. And this happened 3 times with all of us wanting to see the shows and not wanting to leave. Calamity did this math magic… I personally think she can read minds. And then she had my hubby take a card, tear it up, burn it to a crisp and then pull it out of a grapefruit….huh?? He had one piece of the card in his hand and it matched the missing piece from the grapefruit…. Huh??? Don’t tell me.

Then there was Greg Frisbee, who juggles, forced indoors, you just can’t throw balls anywhere when the winds want to haul them off in another direction. There was a crowd that formed indoors for his middle show, but he also had to cancel his last show. Nothing you can do about it when nature doesn’t comply, and he would have stayed indoors for his last show mind you, except that it was overtaken by a band with a lot of electronic equipment that also had to be sheltered from the storm.

In the meantime there was one of the brightest rainbows I had even seen in my life, and I tried to get a picture of it. I could see from end to end, and it glowed in the thick black clouds!!

Skip Banks was there, I had never seen his show, he drew a crowd in the middle of the street, and I was in the very front row! There was enough time between showers (typical rain in Arizona by the way, rains by the moments not by the inches) and he did his entire show. Every one of his wonderful characters cracking me up! I couldn’t believe how many costume changes he had, put me in the mind of a cross of Buster Keaton and Weird Al. Fantastic performance. He even pulled me out of the audience to dance in his show, which made me laugh a lot. We chatted with him a bit until the storm forced us back inside of the building. It was getting so cold my fingers lost feeling, but we thought we would try and weather out the storm and found ourselves chatting with Greg, Calamity Jo and Godfrey the magician while we waited and that was a lot of fun generally speaking, though I felt bad for Godfrey who couldn’t perform again because of the storm.

BTW Godfrey is a very very funny magician; if you can see him he is so crazy worth the time. Family appropriate, I know he knows real magic. I haven’t been able to prove this yet, but I am pretty positive I am right.

It was no one’s fault. Just the nature of the beast.

I tried to find coffee to warm up. I had on my gloves and a hat and coat, as did many people, and then there was this one guy running around in a tank top and shorts. Why is there always one guy like that? =)

We decided to try and stay for one more show, the Doggies of the Wild West. It was an interesting start since Gary (Rowdy) changed it up adding children?? To the show?? Calamity Jo wasn’t there and it was weird. But even he had to leave because his set was blowing away. He gathered up the doggies to safety and then gathered up his stage. I kinda didn’t mind his making it shorter, the kids looked bored, and that sucks a lot of life out of a show. IMHO.

It was a fun ride though; I hadn’t been in a fair where it was virtually flying away.

I really enjoyed myself; I got a different side of the fair this way… wouldn’t have changed a thing.