{"id":19732,"date":"2015-07-10T15:05:15","date_gmt":"2015-07-10T22:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=19732"},"modified":"2015-07-10T15:09:18","modified_gmt":"2015-07-10T22:09:18","slug":"behind-the-scenes-folks-enjoy-marin-county-fair-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/behind-the-scenes-folks-enjoy-marin-county-fair-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind-the-scenes folks enjoy Marin County Fair, too"},"content":{"rendered":"
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John (right) upstages owner, Anne Garner, at Marin County Fair. John\u2019s sister, is at left. Photo by Woody Weingarten.<\/p>\n

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Emilie Owens cheers on four porkers in Marin County Fair race. Photo by Woody Weingarten.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

This year\u2019s five-day Marin County Fair had something to please almost every Jane and Joe \u2014 adult or kid.<\/p>\n

With a bonus for me.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Because not only did I enjoy the ever-better entertainment and art exhibits and midway, and a breeze that made July\u2019s heat tolerable, I got to interview typically \u201cinvisible,\u201d behind-the-scenes folks who normally don\u2019t get their names into print.<\/p>\n

Take, for instance, Karen Katich of Martinez.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s been portraying Princess Leia of\u00a0 \u201cStar Wars\u201d for years. It\u2019s one of her favorite things.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I saw the original \u2018Star Wars\u2019 11 times when it first came out, and more than 1,000 times since.\u201d<\/p>\n

She loves \u201ckids\u2019 eyes getting the size of saucers when they see me, fulfilling their fantasy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anne Garner owns Eleven Roses Ranch in Clearlake Oaks and brought Clydesdale horses for folks to admire.<\/p>\n

Plus a couple of 1,600 pound draft mules.<\/p>\n

John, the male, apparently was feeling his oats, to use a phrase about 150 years older than the 74 years the fair\u2019s been running.<\/p>\n

He repeatedly tried using his teeth to unknot the rope that tethered him to a gate, and upstaged her by playfully nuzzling her blouse again and again.<\/p>\n

She explained that he \u201cenjoys chewing garden hoses, rolling in the dirt, and bullying everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, she added, \u201che\u2019s really a coward, afraid of his own shadow.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Karen Katich portrays Princess Leia at Marin County Fair. Photo by Woody Weingarten.<\/p><\/div>\n

She frequently runs into fairgoers she \u201csaw a year ago,\u201d and especially likes \u201cseeing the little kids so excited.\u201d\u201cIt\u2019s fun,\u201d she told me, \u201cbecause everybody\u2019s happy they\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rick Creelman of Fairfax is a ukulele player, a regular at Friday night jamborees at Del Medina\u2019s home in San Rafael.<\/p>\n

He came to play with 50 or so UFOs, Ukulele Friends Ohana (which means family or community), though the stage held only about 30 so the rest had to perform while roaming the audience.<\/p>\n

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Marilyn Ryan puts fairgoer\u2019s ticket in bucket. Photo by Woody Weingarten.<\/p><\/div>\n

This is the group\u2019s fourth fair. They participate, Creelman said, \u201cbecause it\u2019s fun, a sing-along rather than a real concert.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also, he noted, \u201ca chance to introduce people to the ukulele and that it\u2019s making a comeback.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edward Johnson is a utility worker who lives in Rohnert Park. His fair duties include \u201cdoing the trash, keeping the restrooms clean.\u201d<\/p>\n

A favorite memory, he revealed, was when he and an assistant supervisor were locking up and unsuccessfully began tugging at a door \u2014 from opposite sides at the same time.<\/p>\n

Bill Hernandez of Petaluma has been with the Marin County Sheriff\u2019s Department 24 years.<\/p>\n

A sergeant, he\u2019s \u201cdone one shift a year at the fair\u201d that long. \u201cIt\u2019s fun to get out with people who are having fun,\u201d he declared \u2014 a contrast with other assignments (patrol, jail, gang enforcement and street crime).<\/p>\n

He remembered folks \u201ctrying to swim across the lagoon to get to the island\u201d when the gates were shut because the fairgrounds were full.<\/p>\n

Christian Williams, a Santa Rosa resident, manned an ice cream giveaway booth.<\/p>\n

He and a co-worker handed out, on average, 22 three-gallon tubs each day \u2014 one scoop at a time.<\/p>\n

Williams was gracious to most freebie-seekers \u2014 including me \u2014 but flummoxed by a kid who skittered away before I could get her name after she asked, \u201cHow much is the free sample of ice cream?\u201d<\/p>\n

Emilie Owens of Medford, Oregon, emcee for the pig races, has been doing the fair four years.<\/p>\n

She loves how noisy her audience gets.<\/p>\n

She recalled cheerleaders forming a human pyramid to embolden their favorite porkers.<\/p>\n

And she recollected four pigs sprinting from the trailer onto the raceway to make it an unscheduled eight-pig contest.<\/p>\n

Another time, \u201csome pigs got free and just ran around the fairground.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zach Lien\u2019s an L.A.-based contractor for Two Bit Circus, which ran the fair\u2019s STEAM Carnival component.<\/p>\n

\u201cSTEAM,\u201d he elucidated, \u201cis an acronym standing for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math. Our games combine those concepts. We teach kids to work together as well as individually. I personally love to watch them trying to figure something out while playing, and it\u2019s fun to watch adults and kids playing a game simultaneously.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019d I, personally, think of this year\u2019s extravaganza, which drew 78,000 people who paid admission and 27,000 more who didn\u2019t?<\/p>\n

I relished that there weren\u2019t lines for indoor bathrooms or outdoor port-a-potties, that I could find places to sit on bales of hay, that I could easily spill out the dirt that invaded my shoes.<\/p>\n

As always, there was too much to do before I tired. But my best measuring rod was that I\u2019d planned to stay an hour and a half.<\/p>\n

And left five hours later.<\/p>\n

Contact Woody Weingarten at www.vitalitypress.com\/<\/a> or voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year\u2019s five-day Marin County Fair had something to please almost every Jane and Joe \u2014 adult or kid. With a bonus for me. Why? Because not only did I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"