At some point in the mid-1990s, I went to the annual Coshocton County Fair in Coshocton, Ohio, USA and I took my SLR camera. (I did often carry a camera around with me when I went places, and I was studing new settings with the camera and wanted to experiment with the long exposure settings.) The Coshocton County Fair is one of the last county fairs in the state of Ohio for the season, and it's always held around the beginning of October each year. I would visit the neighbouring Muskingum County Fair and the Coshocton County Fair every year. I would enjoy visiting the exhibition halls and the animal barns, riding on the different rides, and eating as much of my favourite fair food as I could.
The fair is a place to see collections of items, artwork, photographs, and awards for best cakes/pies/jams/quilts and best fruit and vegetable. The neighbouring fair at Muskingum County is on earlier in the summer (normally in early August), and the end of the season brings about the more harvest-oriented awards that are in season at that time. Large pumpkins and squash are always on show at Coshocton's fair. However, the barns and halls with these items are often a bit dark inside and a bit less interesting (noting that the 1990s was before the ability to take unlimited photographs), so I don't have any photographs of those.
I wish I could read the signs and prices a little clearer.
Funnel cakes and elephant ears are amongst the highlights of fair food. Funnel cakes are a batter (similar to waffle batter), which is drizzled on top of a vat of grease that is deep frying. The drizzle is kept around a circular pattern to form a shape, which is then golden-brown and then removed and sprinkled with powdered sugar and served up on a paper plate. Elephant ears taste a bit like a doughnut; they are flat and large like an elephant ear shape (obviously, they also fit on a paper plate, so they are not too large). They are drenched in cinnamon-sugar.
Other favourite fair foods include onion rings (made with slices of onion) and shaken lemonade. I was never really fond of cotton candy (candy floss), and I find candy and toffee apples to be too messy and mushy inside.
The food stands are located throughout the fair grounds, and other stands contain various fair games. I never played any of these as my parents always said they were rigged and are a waste of money.
Hot dogs and corn dogs and roasted corn on the cob are also fair food items. Corn dogs are hot dogs covered with a shell made of batter and ground up corn. They are eaten on a stick.
Those are my memories of the fair, and I have not been to the Coshocton County Fair for over 15 years now. In fact, these photographs may have been my last visit. I would love to visit again, but when I do tend to visit, it has been for the holidays or in the late summer months. I would love to go back next autumn.
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