I know you inveterate book readers will scoff at the idea that I have finished my fourth book since retirement. I must fully commit to a book to read it because so few get completed. They better be good and pretty easy to read.
Sue picked this gem out of the costco paperback group and it is one right down my alley. The book is Flight of Passage a memoir by Rinker Buck.
With a name like that you just have to read it. It happened in the same era that I went to high school, 1964-1968. Its flight occurred 1966. While there is a lot of flying in the story, there is really very limited technical jargon needed to understand the book,
The story is of the interaction of two high school aged boys with their father. Their father was a hyperbolic magazine editor and leader of many civil rights demonstrations. Their family was a large catholic family that lived in New Jersey and flew planes. The father lost a leg in an aviation accident. This shaped some of the experiences of the boys.
Rinker's older brother, was really the idealized pilot of the two. He is the good student, but lacked the social skills his younger bother possesses.
One summer after working the entire winter restoring an 85 horsepower piper cub, the two flew cross country in 6 days, from New Jersey to California. This book covers many of their experiences in this flight. At the time others claimed that they were the youngest pair to fly coast to coast. They had no radio in their plane and limited knowledge of how temperature and altitude could interact with their flight.
Its a very nice easy read.
: ) Pat
Monday, September 6, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Shrimp the New Tuna
It used to be that all cooks had a can of tuna around for emergency meals or to get fish in the diet once a week.
My experience was that tuna over toast was a regular growing up. I kind of drew the line on this when my creative mom decided to make it green for St. Pat's day.
Tuna dishes given way to the shrimp meal.
Tonight we had a shrimp meal. Starting with frozen 31-35 sized shrimp from costco, I let them thaw appropriately with a couple of changes of cool water. I dropped in a little olive oil and some butter, a couple shredded cloves of garlic, and some very dry sherry. As it heated up I chopped up some of dad's famous tomatoes and used a paper towel to soak up the juice. A half a fresh lemon went in just before the shrimp. Using a little bigger shrimp (the last of the previous package) we each had 8. I upped the shrimp to 10 (still a few too few) for each of us and sauteed them in the liquid. When they were done, I dropped in the chopped tomato and it was done!
The rice cooker was making the rice. The microwave was having a go at the small artichokes. It was a pretty good dinner out of just a little bit of nothing. That was what creamed tuna on toast was in my day.
For my part I will take the shrimp any day!
My experience was that tuna over toast was a regular growing up. I kind of drew the line on this when my creative mom decided to make it green for St. Pat's day.
Tuna dishes given way to the shrimp meal.
Tonight we had a shrimp meal. Starting with frozen 31-35 sized shrimp from costco, I let them thaw appropriately with a couple of changes of cool water. I dropped in a little olive oil and some butter, a couple shredded cloves of garlic, and some very dry sherry. As it heated up I chopped up some of dad's famous tomatoes and used a paper towel to soak up the juice. A half a fresh lemon went in just before the shrimp. Using a little bigger shrimp (the last of the previous package) we each had 8. I upped the shrimp to 10 (still a few too few) for each of us and sauteed them in the liquid. When they were done, I dropped in the chopped tomato and it was done!
The rice cooker was making the rice. The microwave was having a go at the small artichokes. It was a pretty good dinner out of just a little bit of nothing. That was what creamed tuna on toast was in my day.
For my part I will take the shrimp any day!
Friday, August 27, 2010
What can you pass down?
Last week when we were celebrating my birthday, Sean, Lindsay's husband asked me a question that made me pause and reflect a little.
His question was,"After 34 years of work, is there anything that you learned that you could pass down to others that could help them in their occupational journey?" You can see that I am paraphrasing a little here, but that is essentially the question.
It took me a moment to figure it out an answer. My answer was this:
Throughout your professional career you are looked upon for your professional advice. Throughout the beginning of the career you think that you are somewhat unsure of what you are doing. At the end of the your career you do not have these doubts. Professionally you are more self assured in your decisions. If you can lengthen the time that you felt professionally self assured you would fell more comfortable with your job.
That was my advice to Sean. Also, remember that not every pause in a conversation needs to be filled.
Best wishes to you and all of yours
Pat
His question was,"After 34 years of work, is there anything that you learned that you could pass down to others that could help them in their occupational journey?" You can see that I am paraphrasing a little here, but that is essentially the question.
It took me a moment to figure it out an answer. My answer was this:
Throughout your professional career you are looked upon for your professional advice. Throughout the beginning of the career you think that you are somewhat unsure of what you are doing. At the end of the your career you do not have these doubts. Professionally you are more self assured in your decisions. If you can lengthen the time that you felt professionally self assured you would fell more comfortable with your job.
That was my advice to Sean. Also, remember that not every pause in a conversation needs to be filled.
Best wishes to you and all of yours
Pat
Iphone and Netflix a great pair
Good news for Iphone users and Netfix users! I tried it out today and it really works!
Here is a short review that an apple company in Vermont, Small Dog.com put out in its mail review:
After months of silence following its announcement at the iPhone 4 keynote, Netflix for iPhone has finally landed. Coincidentally, its arrival came less than 24 hours after I posted an article on Barkings regarding its whereabouts.
The entire experience had an uncanny quality to it, and I couldn’t help but feel a little weirded out upon seeing it in the App Store the next morning. Now if only iOS 4.1 would come out and make my iPhone 3G usable again…
But I digress. Though the app was not released in the timeliest of fashions, Netflix clearly took the extra time to fix bugs. While performance is somewhat slow on the iPhone 3G (what isn’t lately?) 3Gs and iPhone 4 users have been reporting smooth and snappy experiences. The app is entirely oriented around Netflix’s Watch Instantly feature as opposed to DVD searching and queue management.
The app’s home screen offers suggestions based on your existing viewing or rating history, and a shortcut button to resume your last viewed video where you left off. You can also browse titles by genre or perform a manual search. The app also provides subscribers with access to their Instant Queue and allows titles found within the app to be added to it. Similar to other platforms featuring Netflix streaming capabilities, the app saves your location within a video, and allows you to resume playback where you left off, even on a different device.
Though this app is essentially the same as what iPad owners have been enjoying for months, it is a very big deal for iPhone and iPod touch users. The ability to stream over 3G is a huge perk placing a vast library of titles at your fingertips nearly anywhere you go. All in all, Netflix for iPhone is a very solid app and an absolute must have for Netflix subscribing iOS device users.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Bonanza Peach
My front yard is peach factory.
The first dwarf tree I set in place was up by the walk on the way to the front door. My sister and brother-in-law bought this slip of a tree as a housewarming gift. For the last thirty years it has cranked out the peaches. It stands just 7 feet tall. I work it similar to a bonsai tree. Its branches are carefully pruned in the Summer and the Fall to maintain its shape and still allow the house numbers to be identified through it. I thinned it very carefully this year. It produced big big peaches. The ripe peach size that will fill up your hand and still leave more room. Usually I need to find a piece of wood to support its limbs with the fruit as it matures. This year it wasn't necessary. One year I was a little lax about this chore and the entire center broke from the weight of the peaches of the tree. This was not a problem for the long time survival of this tree. I pruned off the broken trunk and allowed the rest of the tree to grow around it. This tree produced 13 quarts of peaches this year. I also have a bag or two in the freezer of its chopped up fruit love to trot this fruit out as a special tree with whipped cream in the winter or fall when no stone fruit is available.
This tree is a patented variety of dwarf peaches called Bonanza. It was one of the first dwarf varieties out there. It is the first peach tree that is ripe in the Summer. It is ready for tree ripe harvest in the third week of June most of the years. This year it was a little late, as are most of the stone fruit in my yard. When it first came out there were warnings against propogation of these trees. They are still available in nurseries and I think that the patent is nearly expired.
The first dwarf tree I set in place was up by the walk on the way to the front door. My sister and brother-in-law bought this slip of a tree as a housewarming gift. For the last thirty years it has cranked out the peaches. It stands just 7 feet tall. I work it similar to a bonsai tree. Its branches are carefully pruned in the Summer and the Fall to maintain its shape and still allow the house numbers to be identified through it. I thinned it very carefully this year. It produced big big peaches. The ripe peach size that will fill up your hand and still leave more room. Usually I need to find a piece of wood to support its limbs with the fruit as it matures. This year it wasn't necessary. One year I was a little lax about this chore and the entire center broke from the weight of the peaches of the tree. This was not a problem for the long time survival of this tree. I pruned off the broken trunk and allowed the rest of the tree to grow around it. This tree produced 13 quarts of peaches this year. I also have a bag or two in the freezer of its chopped up fruit love to trot this fruit out as a special tree with whipped cream in the winter or fall when no stone fruit is available.
This tree is a patented variety of dwarf peaches called Bonanza. It was one of the first dwarf varieties out there. It is the first peach tree that is ripe in the Summer. It is ready for tree ripe harvest in the third week of June most of the years. This year it was a little late, as are most of the stone fruit in my yard. When it first came out there were warnings against propogation of these trees. They are still available in nurseries and I think that the patent is nearly expired.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Future of Teaching
At coffee this morning I picked up and read this article in the NY Times. Its main thrust is that the IVY league graduates are not always picked to teach in the new corporate concept company called Teach America. There are concerns about the length of time and devotion to the job that these new entrants to the job of education bring. To me it brings up some startling issues that we face as a nation periodically. Is the job of teaching our young.. the future of America.. to be foisted upon.. it will look good on my resume folks? Or will the work that we have developed over the years to promote teaching as a career be maintained? Can someone be taught the teaching techniques needed in a few short weeks in a dorm setting at Tulane?
There are several districts in the valley that have great salary schedules for teachers that have taught for 15 to 20 years that the districts never have to pay. The challenge of teaching and development as a professional in growth are not available at many of these schools. So teachers may start at these sites and eventually move on to other more professionally supported school districts. This may also be an artifact not mentioned in this article. Teach America was designed to plug into schools that were not making the grade. In some districts this group has made the grade in improving scores. In many other areas the verdict is out. Anyway.. here is the copy and paste of the article.
HOUSTON — Alneada Biggers, Harvard class of 2010, was amazed this past year when she discovered that getting into the nation’s top law schools and grad programs could be easier than being accepted for a starting teaching job with Teach for America.
Ms. Biggers says that of 15 to 20 Harvard friends who applied to Teach for America, only three or four got in. “This wasn’t last minute — a lot applied in August 2009, they’d been student leaders and volunteered,” Ms. Biggers said. She says one of her closest friends wanted to do Teach for America, but was rejected and had to “settle” for University of Virginia Law School.
Will Cullen, Villanova ’10, had a friend who was rejected and instead will be a Fulbright scholar. Julianne Carlson, a new graduate of Yale — where a record 18 percent of seniors applied to Teach for America — says she knows a half dozen “amazing” classmates who were rejected, although the number is probably higher. “People are reluctant to tell you because of the stigma of not getting in,” Ms. Carlson said.
When Robert Rosen graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2009, he did not apply, fearing he would be turned down. Instead, he volunteered in a friend’s classroom weekly for the next year, to see if he liked teaching, but also to build a credential that would impress Teach for America. Asked how hard getting in is, James Goldberg, Duke ’10 said, “I’d compare it with being accepted to an Ivy League grad school.”
Mr. Goldberg, Mr. Rosen, Ms. Carlson, Mr. Cullen and Ms. Biggers count themselves lucky to be among the 4,500 selected by the nonprofit to work at high-poverty public schools from a record 46,359 applicants (up 32 percent over 2009). There’s little doubt the numbers are fueled by a bad economy, which has limited job options even for graduates from top campuses. In 2007, during the economic boom, 18,172 people applied.
This year, on its 20th anniversary, Teach for America hired more seniors than any other employer at numerous colleges, including Yale, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At Harvard, 293 seniors, or 18 percent of the class, applied, compared with 100 seniors in 2007. “So many job options in finance, P.R. and consulting have been cut back,” said Ms. Carlson, the Yale grad.
In interviews, two dozen soon-to-be-teachers here in Houston, one of eight national Teach for America centers that provide a five-week crash summer course in classroom practices, mentioned the chance to help poor children and close the achievement gap as major reasons for applying. Victor Alquicira (Yale), who is Mexican-born, and Kousha Navidar (Duke), who is Iranian-born, said it was a chance to give back to a country that had given them much.
But there are other more material attractions. Teach for America has become an elite brand that will help build a résumé, whether or not the person stays in teaching. And in a bad economy, it’s a two-year job guarantee with a good paycheck; members earn a beginning teacher’s salary in the districts where they’re placed. For Mr. Cullen, who will teach at a Dallas middle school, that’s $45,000 — the same he’d make if he’d taken a job offer from a financial public relations firm. Ms. Carlson, who will also make $45,000 teaching first grade in San Antonio, said: “I feel very fortunate. I knew a lot of people at Yale who didn’t have a job or plan when they graduated.”
In contrast, the Peace Corps (to which Teach for America compares itself) pays a cost-of-living allowance adjusted for each country where volunteers work, and a $7,500 stipend when the 27-month stint is finished.
While Teach for America is highly regarded by undergrads — Mr. Goldberg said Duke recruiting sessions typically attracted 50 students — it gets mixed reviews from education experts.
Research indicates that generally, the more experienced teachers are, the better their students perform, and several studies have criticized Teach for America’s turnover rate.
“I’m always shocked by the hullaboo, given Teach for America’s size” — about 0.2 percent of all teachers — “and its mixed impact,” said Julian Vasquez Heilig, a University of Texas professor. Dr. Heilig and Su Jin Jez of California State University, Sacramento, recently published a critical assessment after reviewing two dozen studies. One study cited indicated that “by the fourth year, 85 percent of T.F.A. teachers had left” New York City schools.
“These people could be superstars, but most leave before they master the teaching craft,” Dr. Heilig said.
Carrie James, a Teach for America spokeswoman, challenged the report. Teach for America press releases cite a 2008 Harvard doctoral thesis indicating that 61 percent of their recruits stay beyond the two-year commitment. However, that same thesis also says “few people are estimated to remain in their initial placement school or the profession beyond five or six years” — a finding not highlighted in the releases.
Ms. James says the program has an impact beyond the classroom, with an alumni contact list of 13,000 still in education, including more than 500 in “government or policy.” Michelle Rhee, chancellor of the Washington, D.C., schools, and Michael Johnston, a Colorado state senator, are among the alums.
Several of the new Teach for America members say it’s too early to know whether they’ll stick with teaching. Ms. Biggers, who was admitted to Harvard and Vanderbilt Law Schools, has deferred attending to teach elementary school in Houston for two years. She then plans to go to law school and, after finishing, says she hopes to do something in education.
To be accepted by Teach for America, applicants survived a lengthy process, with thousands cut at each step. That included an online application; a phone interview; presentation of a lesson plan; a personal interview; a written test; and a monitored group discussion with several other applicants. Rachel Faust, a University of Maryland graduate who will teach in Miami, says she was struck by how aggressive some applicants were at the group session. “They say you’re not against each other, it’s just a group discussion,” Ms. Faust said. “But some people don’t treat it like that, they’re very competitive.”
A $185 million operating budget, (two-thirds from private donations, the rest from governmental sources) helps finance recruiters at 350 campuses to enlarge the applicant pool. “I was recruited like crazy,” said Mr. Alquicira, who was a Yale Daily News editor and tutor in New Haven. “I’m not even sure how they got my name.”
The 774 new recruits who are training here are housed in Rice University dorms. Many are up past midnight doing lesson plans and by 6:30 a.m. are on a bus to teach summer school to students making up failed classes. It’s a tough lesson for those who’ve come to do battle with the achievement gap.
Lilianna Nguyen, a recent Stanford graduate, dressed formally in high heels, was trying to teach a sixth-grade math class about negative numbers. She’d prepared definitions to be copied down, but the projector was broken.
She’d also created a fun math game, giving every student an index card with a number. They were supposed to silently line themselves up from lowest negative to highest positive, but one boy kept disrupting the class, blurting out, twirling his pen, complaining he wanted to play a fun game, not a math game.
“Why is there talking?” Ms. Nguyen said. “There should be no talking.”
“Do I have to play?” asked the boy.
“Do you want to pass summer school?” Ms. Nguyen answered.
The boy asked if it was O.K. to push people to get them in the right order.
“This is your third warning,” Ms. Nguyen said. “Do not speak out in my class.”
On Education, a new column by Michael Winerip, will appear Mondays. Mr. Winerip can be reached at oneducation@nytimes.com.
There are several districts in the valley that have great salary schedules for teachers that have taught for 15 to 20 years that the districts never have to pay. The challenge of teaching and development as a professional in growth are not available at many of these schools. So teachers may start at these sites and eventually move on to other more professionally supported school districts. This may also be an artifact not mentioned in this article. Teach America was designed to plug into schools that were not making the grade. In some districts this group has made the grade in improving scores. In many other areas the verdict is out. Anyway.. here is the copy and paste of the article.
HOUSTON — Alneada Biggers, Harvard class of 2010, was amazed this past year when she discovered that getting into the nation’s top law schools and grad programs could be easier than being accepted for a starting teaching job with Teach for America.
Ms. Biggers says that of 15 to 20 Harvard friends who applied to Teach for America, only three or four got in. “This wasn’t last minute — a lot applied in August 2009, they’d been student leaders and volunteered,” Ms. Biggers said. She says one of her closest friends wanted to do Teach for America, but was rejected and had to “settle” for University of Virginia Law School.
Will Cullen, Villanova ’10, had a friend who was rejected and instead will be a Fulbright scholar. Julianne Carlson, a new graduate of Yale — where a record 18 percent of seniors applied to Teach for America — says she knows a half dozen “amazing” classmates who were rejected, although the number is probably higher. “People are reluctant to tell you because of the stigma of not getting in,” Ms. Carlson said.
When Robert Rosen graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2009, he did not apply, fearing he would be turned down. Instead, he volunteered in a friend’s classroom weekly for the next year, to see if he liked teaching, but also to build a credential that would impress Teach for America. Asked how hard getting in is, James Goldberg, Duke ’10 said, “I’d compare it with being accepted to an Ivy League grad school.”
Mr. Goldberg, Mr. Rosen, Ms. Carlson, Mr. Cullen and Ms. Biggers count themselves lucky to be among the 4,500 selected by the nonprofit to work at high-poverty public schools from a record 46,359 applicants (up 32 percent over 2009). There’s little doubt the numbers are fueled by a bad economy, which has limited job options even for graduates from top campuses. In 2007, during the economic boom, 18,172 people applied.
This year, on its 20th anniversary, Teach for America hired more seniors than any other employer at numerous colleges, including Yale, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At Harvard, 293 seniors, or 18 percent of the class, applied, compared with 100 seniors in 2007. “So many job options in finance, P.R. and consulting have been cut back,” said Ms. Carlson, the Yale grad.
In interviews, two dozen soon-to-be-teachers here in Houston, one of eight national Teach for America centers that provide a five-week crash summer course in classroom practices, mentioned the chance to help poor children and close the achievement gap as major reasons for applying. Victor Alquicira (Yale), who is Mexican-born, and Kousha Navidar (Duke), who is Iranian-born, said it was a chance to give back to a country that had given them much.
But there are other more material attractions. Teach for America has become an elite brand that will help build a résumé, whether or not the person stays in teaching. And in a bad economy, it’s a two-year job guarantee with a good paycheck; members earn a beginning teacher’s salary in the districts where they’re placed. For Mr. Cullen, who will teach at a Dallas middle school, that’s $45,000 — the same he’d make if he’d taken a job offer from a financial public relations firm. Ms. Carlson, who will also make $45,000 teaching first grade in San Antonio, said: “I feel very fortunate. I knew a lot of people at Yale who didn’t have a job or plan when they graduated.”
In contrast, the Peace Corps (to which Teach for America compares itself) pays a cost-of-living allowance adjusted for each country where volunteers work, and a $7,500 stipend when the 27-month stint is finished.
While Teach for America is highly regarded by undergrads — Mr. Goldberg said Duke recruiting sessions typically attracted 50 students — it gets mixed reviews from education experts.
Research indicates that generally, the more experienced teachers are, the better their students perform, and several studies have criticized Teach for America’s turnover rate.
“I’m always shocked by the hullaboo, given Teach for America’s size” — about 0.2 percent of all teachers — “and its mixed impact,” said Julian Vasquez Heilig, a University of Texas professor. Dr. Heilig and Su Jin Jez of California State University, Sacramento, recently published a critical assessment after reviewing two dozen studies. One study cited indicated that “by the fourth year, 85 percent of T.F.A. teachers had left” New York City schools.
“These people could be superstars, but most leave before they master the teaching craft,” Dr. Heilig said.
Carrie James, a Teach for America spokeswoman, challenged the report. Teach for America press releases cite a 2008 Harvard doctoral thesis indicating that 61 percent of their recruits stay beyond the two-year commitment. However, that same thesis also says “few people are estimated to remain in their initial placement school or the profession beyond five or six years” — a finding not highlighted in the releases.
Ms. James says the program has an impact beyond the classroom, with an alumni contact list of 13,000 still in education, including more than 500 in “government or policy.” Michelle Rhee, chancellor of the Washington, D.C., schools, and Michael Johnston, a Colorado state senator, are among the alums.
Several of the new Teach for America members say it’s too early to know whether they’ll stick with teaching. Ms. Biggers, who was admitted to Harvard and Vanderbilt Law Schools, has deferred attending to teach elementary school in Houston for two years. She then plans to go to law school and, after finishing, says she hopes to do something in education.
To be accepted by Teach for America, applicants survived a lengthy process, with thousands cut at each step. That included an online application; a phone interview; presentation of a lesson plan; a personal interview; a written test; and a monitored group discussion with several other applicants. Rachel Faust, a University of Maryland graduate who will teach in Miami, says she was struck by how aggressive some applicants were at the group session. “They say you’re not against each other, it’s just a group discussion,” Ms. Faust said. “But some people don’t treat it like that, they’re very competitive.”
A $185 million operating budget, (two-thirds from private donations, the rest from governmental sources) helps finance recruiters at 350 campuses to enlarge the applicant pool. “I was recruited like crazy,” said Mr. Alquicira, who was a Yale Daily News editor and tutor in New Haven. “I’m not even sure how they got my name.”
The 774 new recruits who are training here are housed in Rice University dorms. Many are up past midnight doing lesson plans and by 6:30 a.m. are on a bus to teach summer school to students making up failed classes. It’s a tough lesson for those who’ve come to do battle with the achievement gap.
Lilianna Nguyen, a recent Stanford graduate, dressed formally in high heels, was trying to teach a sixth-grade math class about negative numbers. She’d prepared definitions to be copied down, but the projector was broken.
She’d also created a fun math game, giving every student an index card with a number. They were supposed to silently line themselves up from lowest negative to highest positive, but one boy kept disrupting the class, blurting out, twirling his pen, complaining he wanted to play a fun game, not a math game.
“Why is there talking?” Ms. Nguyen said. “There should be no talking.”
“Do I have to play?” asked the boy.
“Do you want to pass summer school?” Ms. Nguyen answered.
The boy asked if it was O.K. to push people to get them in the right order.
“This is your third warning,” Ms. Nguyen said. “Do not speak out in my class.”
On Education, a new column by Michael Winerip, will appear Mondays. Mr. Winerip can be reached at oneducation@nytimes.com.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
County Fairs
Growing up in South San Francisco, we always looked forward to the San Mateo County Fair. It was more properly known as the San Mateo County Fiesta.
It was usually held in August just before we headed back to school the day after labor day.
The county fair extravaganza was funded by the horse track revenues that it generated. Every county had a horse track in the forties and fifties where once a year horse races were held and betting para mutual betting was allowed. The sport of kings has gradually fallen on to hard times and the county fair horse race metaphor has slipped away. Many county fairs have declined in the importance too.
Our local county fair once had a horse track and the barns that go with it. They have been replaced with a quarter mile auto track. There are some vestiges of the track life. One of the bars in the shady part of town is the turf club. It was not founded or maintained by landscapers. Now the bar is primarily a biker bar.
Our Merced County fair is divided into two. We have a May fair on the West Side for the residents in the Los Banos, Gustine, Dos Palos area and a summer fair for the Merced Atwater Livingston side. Our FFA chapters have the opportunity to compete in both along with the nearby Sanislaus County Fair in Turlock and the Madera county fair in Chowchilla,
This year was a big change. The state fair organizers decided to change the date of their fair. Many of the competitions of the fairs go on to compete in the state fair. With an earlier State Fair, the other counties that wanted to change got their wish. The Merced County fair is usually held at the end of July suddenly was scheduled for the middle of June. The Alameda County fair in Dublin maintained their traditional fair running around July 4th. July 16th is the new scheduled time for the Stanislaus County Fair in Turlock.
The Merced county fair in June had a significant boost in attendance this year. The cooler weather in June rather than July allowed more people out to enjoy the fair. Overall this Spring and summer has been cooler overall. Its really hard to predict when we will have out hot spells. The overall consensus is that the fair will be better off in the future at an earlier time.
The Alameda county fair is on right now. Its a good one. Get out and see a fair this summer!
: ) Pat
It was usually held in August just before we headed back to school the day after labor day.
The county fair extravaganza was funded by the horse track revenues that it generated. Every county had a horse track in the forties and fifties where once a year horse races were held and betting para mutual betting was allowed. The sport of kings has gradually fallen on to hard times and the county fair horse race metaphor has slipped away. Many county fairs have declined in the importance too.
Our local county fair once had a horse track and the barns that go with it. They have been replaced with a quarter mile auto track. There are some vestiges of the track life. One of the bars in the shady part of town is the turf club. It was not founded or maintained by landscapers. Now the bar is primarily a biker bar.
Our Merced County fair is divided into two. We have a May fair on the West Side for the residents in the Los Banos, Gustine, Dos Palos area and a summer fair for the Merced Atwater Livingston side. Our FFA chapters have the opportunity to compete in both along with the nearby Sanislaus County Fair in Turlock and the Madera county fair in Chowchilla,
This year was a big change. The state fair organizers decided to change the date of their fair. Many of the competitions of the fairs go on to compete in the state fair. With an earlier State Fair, the other counties that wanted to change got their wish. The Merced County fair is usually held at the end of July suddenly was scheduled for the middle of June. The Alameda County fair in Dublin maintained their traditional fair running around July 4th. July 16th is the new scheduled time for the Stanislaus County Fair in Turlock.
The Merced county fair in June had a significant boost in attendance this year. The cooler weather in June rather than July allowed more people out to enjoy the fair. Overall this Spring and summer has been cooler overall. Its really hard to predict when we will have out hot spells. The overall consensus is that the fair will be better off in the future at an earlier time.
The Alameda county fair is on right now. Its a good one. Get out and see a fair this summer!
: ) Pat
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