Memories of the Alaska State Fair

My first experience at the Alaska State Fair was back in the mid-1960s as part of a group of young 4-H girls from Glennallen. A couple mothers brought us in to Palmer to see our projects on display and pick them up the next day when the fair was over. I was too young to know how sleeping arrangements were made for the group, but I do remember we all spent the night at Janet Kincaid’s home. She was in the hospitality business way back then!

A few years later, my Dad dropped off some of his cucumbers on a trip to Anchorage at fair time. The whole family was happily surprised to find a purple grand prize ribbon attached to them when we checked on the return home.

When my husband, kids, and I moved to the Palmer area in the fall of 1984 and attended the fair for the first time as a family, I didn’t realize it would be the beginning of a family tradition. The next year I entered some jams and jellies and a dress I made. The kids entered some of their artwork from school and some baked goods. Erin made peanut butter cookies and pumpkin pie. Patrick made cinnamon rolls and pumpkin pie. Some items placed and some didn’t, but what surprised us was the grand prize Patrick received for his cinnamon rolls.

I was a stickler for the kids doing everything by themselves, but of course I supervised. When the dough got stiff and hard to mix, Patrick asked me to help. When I told him that if I helped, the cinnamon rolls wouldn’t be entered under his name, he decided to keep going on his own. Boy was he proud of that purple ribbon — the only ever to come home to our house.

Our family’s tradition of entering continued and over the next many years several ribbons were earned for Erin’s telephone shaped pillow, Patrick’s pencil drawing of a tree, Gary’s Rhode Island rooster and hen, and my vegetables.

Each year we gave the kids a few dollars to spend on the carnival rides. That would only buy a couple of rides apiece. When they were 8 and 10, a friend enlightened them to the pay-one-price, ride all day bracelets. So for the next few years it was my duty to stand around by the carnival rides and keep an eye on everyone one day each fair. We quickly learned to arrive when the gates opened, because as the day wore on, the lines got horrendously long. According to them, it was still well worth it.

As proud parents, Gary and I watched when Erin’s ballet class performed a dance to the song “New York, New York” on the Blue Bonnet stage. Her first “date” was to go with a boy to the “bracelet” carnival rides. When she was older, she and her friends earned money at the Pizza Hut booth.

We were in the crowd when Patrick won a trophy for one of his remote control car races at the fair. In 1989 when they were 13, he and his friend, George, needed money for their car-racing hobby. George got them both jobs at the Chinese food booth. Peeling onions was their first job duty, but gradually they worked their way up to other responsibilities. Of course, we moms provided transportation to and from the fair at all different hours of the day. Patrick went from the Chinese booth to the Coffee Brothers booth, which eventually landed him a position at a restaurant in San Francisco.

After our kids left home, Gary and I only attended once or twice during the 10 days, but we always ran into friends we hadn’t seen for a while. We saw one particular couple from the Kenny Lake area three different years in a row…always unplanned and always on different days of the week. Sometimes friends from out of town would come and stay at our home and we would attend special music events together.

After our move to Slana in 1999, we were too busy with bed and breakfast guests during August to make the trip to Palmer for the fair, but when our guests inquired, we always recommended they attend. With such a wide variety of events, activities, and exhibits, there was sure to be something to satisfy all interests. We also warned them about the traffic congestion, the long lines, and the high likeliness of rain.

Now with our return to life in Palmer, Gary and I find ourselves drawn once again to the fair each fall…checking out the exhibits, the new food booths, the entertainment and running into people we know.

This year I even signed up to volunteer in the Flower Exhibit department. First Entry day Aug. 20 was chaotic but fun, as people came and went for nine hours to enter a variety of lovely flowers for competition. I drove home that afternoon, gathered three colors of sweet peas, returned to the fair and entered flowers for the first time in my life.

When the judging was complete the next day, I checked and discovered blue ribbons on both the lavender and blue sweet peas! “That was so much fun,” I told Gary that evening, “I might look around and see what else I could take to the Second Entry next week.”

It’s been close to 50 years since I first entered something in the Alaska State Fair and I’m sure there are others who have an even longer tradition of entering. Perhaps a small seed of competitiveness was instilled in me back in the mid-1960s. No matter the reason, the fair holds a special place in my heart.

Maraley McMichael is a longtime Mat-Su Valley writer and resident.