Do the Puyallup Fair

For a few weeks in September, all roads lead to the Puyallup Fair. Seems like once we start having more sunny days than rainy ones, every road in Puyallup and Pierce County is under construction. As aggravating as it is, it makes sense. Compared to other places I’ve lived, there aren’t many potholes here---amazing considering our rainy climate. But I think the true miracle is that all the orange signs, heavy equipment, and flaggers within a few miles of Puyallup magically disappear once the fair starts.

It reminds me of the cleaning frenzy that takes over our house whenever company’s coming, except that Puyallup doesn’t just throw everything into the laundry room, they actually get the roadwork done. Living here gives us an insider’s view. We see what our city and the fairgrounds look like before, during, and after “the party,” when our feet are back up on the coffee table and we’re reviewing how it went.

I usually enter something in the fair: a quilt, a cake, scones, etc. And, I’m usually one of the last entrants to scurry through the Gold gate, bringing my husband or a friend with me. It’s a little eerie in there before the fair with the food booths boarded up, empty walkways, and the inside of the Pavilion stripped down to bare walls and vacant display cases. It’s like seeing a model bare faced, and in sweats, great bone structure, but no sparkle. Two years ago, when my friend Carol and I went to enter our quilts, she drove her SUV in through the gate and then we spent a half an hour riding around 160 desolate acres searching for a way out of what seemed like The Twilight Zone.

What a contrast to when the fair’s going full tilt, packed with millions of people. It really does have something for everyone: rides for thrill seekers or young kids, farm animals and pets, foods ranging from meals to snacks, exhibits of farm produce and kitschy collections, entertainers performing on every corner, and smooth-talking salespeople demonstrating their products. The fair becomes its own city as Puyallup throws a party that’s safer and cleaner than Mardi Gras, way more family oriented than Vegas, and lots more affordable than Disney Land. Fair neighbors work their arm muscles waving people into parking lots that used to be their yards. Locals change their routine routes to avoid the traffic instead of construction.

My husband and I are looking forward to admiring the quilts, artwork, and photography in the Pavilion, buying the latest gadgets we’ve seen advertised on TV, and gorging ourselves on elephant ears, corn on the cob, and whatever else we can only get at the fair. We’ll even send dozens of scones across the state to homesick cougars at WSU.

I hope that you’ll join us at one of the biggest fairs in the country, right here in Puyallup. We’ve got everything spruced up for you.

Laura Keolanui Stark is probably in the scone line at the Puyallup Fair. She can be reached at lkstark@yahoo.com. (Originally published in The Herald, www.puyallupherald.com as “Do the Puyallup Fair,” on 9/16/09.)