Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

First hour of the San Diego County Fair

The Beatles were there — hurry, hurrayy...

Margaret Austin
Margaret Austin

For the 29th consecutive year, Escondido’s Margaret Austin, known as the “Pink Pig Lady” for her rolling collection of pink pig memorabilia, was the first to walk through the front gates on June 7 — the opening of the San Diego County Fair. She arrived by bus at around 6:00 a.m.

This year Margaret sported a white T-shirt imprinted with my Neighborhood News article and photo of her from the Reader. I had written about her on 2013’s opening day.

Sponsored
Sponsored

9:50 a.m. – Fred Schenk, chairman of the 22nd Agricultural District, operator of the fairgrounds, cut the official red ribbon. The theme of this year’s fair is “The Fab Fair,” and ten-foot-tall Beatles characters walked around as the gates were opened.

10:00 a.m. – Janice Tamborelli of Highland Park was already tired walking down the midway; she was the first to drop a quarter into a Footsie Wootsie foot-massager machine.

10:05 a.m. – Kaye Nguyen from Poway said she always tries something new each year at the fair. This year she convinced her friend from Texas to be the first to try Chicken Charlie’s triple-decker cheeseburger with Krispy Kreme donuts as the bun.

10:08 a.m. – South Park’s Dick Hardick and La Mesa’s Jean Shaw, both teachers at St. Augustine High School, split the first fair cinnamon roll served on the midway. They got theirs covered with nuts.

10:10 a.m. – Alyson and Edward Lestage of Mira Mesa got the first fair photos taken at the midway photo booth.

10:14 a.m. – Judy Fry of Southeast San Diego bought the first gadgets in Bing Crosby Hall. She was proud of her purchase of foot-care products from the “Gadgets and Neat Stuff” booth.

10:25 a.m. – Smelling the flavorful fried dough from isles away, Steve Palyash from Santee rushed to Dixie’s Mini-Donuts to be first in line for his dozen. “This is my first stop every year,” he said.

10:36 a.m. – With an 11 o’clock opening of the carnival rides, crews were rushing to get a malfunctioning ticket booth hooked up with electricity and credit-card machine service.

10:39 a.m. - Ryan Dipinto of Clairemont dropped the first bucks at a game booth, but may also have embarrassed himself in front of his young family. Mom and daughter watched as he tried two times, three balls each, to keep tossed balls from bouncing out at the Tubs of Fun.

11:10 a.m. - San Diego’s Mike Conkoto and buddy Matt Thornburg debated for several minutes if they would be the first to go on the Super Bungee drop. They instead choose to be the first to consume an adult beverage at the nearby Tecate Beer Garden.

As Dan, one of the bungee operators said, “He had to have the first drink before he could have the first jump.”

It took another ten minutes before Ray Garcia of El Cajon would step up to be the first to fall off a perfectly good platform suspended 130 feet in the air, proving himself to his family of five.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Two poems for Christmas by Joseph Brodsky

Star of the Nativity and Nativity Poem
Margaret Austin
Margaret Austin

For the 29th consecutive year, Escondido’s Margaret Austin, known as the “Pink Pig Lady” for her rolling collection of pink pig memorabilia, was the first to walk through the front gates on June 7 — the opening of the San Diego County Fair. She arrived by bus at around 6:00 a.m.

This year Margaret sported a white T-shirt imprinted with my Neighborhood News article and photo of her from the Reader. I had written about her on 2013’s opening day.

Sponsored
Sponsored

9:50 a.m. – Fred Schenk, chairman of the 22nd Agricultural District, operator of the fairgrounds, cut the official red ribbon. The theme of this year’s fair is “The Fab Fair,” and ten-foot-tall Beatles characters walked around as the gates were opened.

10:00 a.m. – Janice Tamborelli of Highland Park was already tired walking down the midway; she was the first to drop a quarter into a Footsie Wootsie foot-massager machine.

10:05 a.m. – Kaye Nguyen from Poway said she always tries something new each year at the fair. This year she convinced her friend from Texas to be the first to try Chicken Charlie’s triple-decker cheeseburger with Krispy Kreme donuts as the bun.

10:08 a.m. – South Park’s Dick Hardick and La Mesa’s Jean Shaw, both teachers at St. Augustine High School, split the first fair cinnamon roll served on the midway. They got theirs covered with nuts.

10:10 a.m. – Alyson and Edward Lestage of Mira Mesa got the first fair photos taken at the midway photo booth.

10:14 a.m. – Judy Fry of Southeast San Diego bought the first gadgets in Bing Crosby Hall. She was proud of her purchase of foot-care products from the “Gadgets and Neat Stuff” booth.

10:25 a.m. – Smelling the flavorful fried dough from isles away, Steve Palyash from Santee rushed to Dixie’s Mini-Donuts to be first in line for his dozen. “This is my first stop every year,” he said.

10:36 a.m. – With an 11 o’clock opening of the carnival rides, crews were rushing to get a malfunctioning ticket booth hooked up with electricity and credit-card machine service.

10:39 a.m. - Ryan Dipinto of Clairemont dropped the first bucks at a game booth, but may also have embarrassed himself in front of his young family. Mom and daughter watched as he tried two times, three balls each, to keep tossed balls from bouncing out at the Tubs of Fun.

11:10 a.m. - San Diego’s Mike Conkoto and buddy Matt Thornburg debated for several minutes if they would be the first to go on the Super Bungee drop. They instead choose to be the first to consume an adult beverage at the nearby Tecate Beer Garden.

As Dan, one of the bungee operators said, “He had to have the first drink before he could have the first jump.”

It took another ten minutes before Ray Garcia of El Cajon would step up to be the first to fall off a perfectly good platform suspended 130 feet in the air, proving himself to his family of five.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Ocean Connectors Wildlife Kayaking Eco Tour, Noon Year Celebration

Events December 31-January 1, 2024
Next Article

Bringing Order to the Christmas Chaos

There is a sense of grandeur in Messiah that period performance mavens miss.
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader