Angela Marie: The York Fair when you are born and raised in York

I don't always admit it to people I meet. There is a certain stigma that comes with saying you were born and raised "over the bridge". At least in Lancaster there is.
But for those who know... and who were born there themselves.. you know what I mean when I say there are certain York traditions that everyone knows about and grew up doing and one of those major things in every York County kid's life is the York Fair.
I don't know if I have ever missed it in my 27 years of life and I am not kidding. My mom is a York county girl born and raised so she always went too which is why I know I have been going since I was a baby.
However, my earliest memory of the York Fair surprisingly was not from that long ago. I don't know if I blocked out a lot of the memories because of the carnies... or because of the eating so much that I gained 5lbs in a day... or from the scars of thinking about how much I cared about what I wore to the fair but either way, I blocked it out and I can only clearly remember from the age of 14 on.
When you are in high school in York and its York fair week, its the best week ever. There is a half day at school on student day and EVERYONE goes to the fair on student day. You actually ride the bus home with your best friend... eat lunch at their house and start getting ready. You will change your outfit. You will do your hair. Freshen up the makeup. And then you will all put your AIM away message up to say "At the fair with ______! Hit us up!" hahahaha. Omg AIM away messages. How old is that?!
So, this is what I remember: Im 14.. I go home on the bus with my bff (at the time. We will call her Buffy because that's what I used to call her, she knows who she is but I am not sure everyone will think of her). We walk in the front door and her mom is sitting on the couch, watching the news and crying. She starts telling us that there was a plane that hit the world trade centers and a lot of people died... she was really upset and we were 14. So to us, this pretty much went through our head as a "well that sucks" ... and now lets start getting ready for the fair. Ugh to be 14 and your biggest worry be your outfit. Those selfish, selfish days. I don't remember anything else about the fair that day except for occasionally looking in the air for airplanes because I am paranoid and if terrorists were hitting the world trade centers in new York then obviously the York fair was going to be their next stop. I am sure I ate a lot of crap. I am sure Buffy and I saw some girls we didn't like... and followed around some guys that we did.
Even if you don't like fair food (which I have yet to meet a person who doesn't)... you would still go to the York fair a couple of times if you are from York. You get to people watch all the weirdos that come(the fair attracts them)... you get to bump into people that you wouldn't.. oh wait, nevermind you are still in high school and you will see those people tomorrow.. ok, point being: you will always go to the fair.

My choice food for the fair:
-A waffle and ice cream sandwich -A corndog -Funnel cake -Fried vegetables -Orangeade

I LOVE fair food. I love people watching. I love walking. I love to have a reason to change out of workout clothes.

I took Tori yesterday (her technically third time being there if we count while she was doing back flips in my belly)... she went last year but was 6 months old so other than being fed by her uncle Travy and looking REALLY cute in a pair of sunglasses she didn't do anything. This year however was MUCH better. She LOVES animals so she had a lot of fun getting to look at the cows, goats, sheep, etc. She is seriously not even sort of phased by their size or smell. If I would have let her she would have gone right up and played with them. Ducks and chickens on the other hand, she was not a fan. They made noises that freaked her out and she kept saying "noo" whenever they made a noise and would cling onto me for dear life lol. She went down a huge slide with her Nonna which I think she was indifferent to at 18 months old. She ate lots of junk and was scared of the noise the roller coaster made. All in all, it was a great day with my mom and Tori. Tori fell asleep on the car ride home and was in bed by 7:15 haha.

2012: Fair with the family. I was about 10-12 weeks pregnant. No rides with my Izzy that year.