15 July 2012
Our 23 year old son, had never been to the Oregon Country fair, north of Eugene. He stated my 24 year old son was going to be working a booth. "How about if we all go?" was my son's suggestion.
Naive me, little did I know.....
My husband and 19 year old son, helped the 23 year old gather our things and we headed North.
Finally we had some sun!
We went by my 24 year olds house. His roomate said he was at the fair. ( Guess he had camped over for two of the three days.)
We went by Safeway in Eugene to purchase the tickets. The ONLY place you could Sunday afternoon. Including the 8.50 for parking...I found myself out nearly $100.00!!
And Sunday was 1/3 over. I had been doing a great deal of reading for my Two English classes...and had two projects due for my other two classes.....held locally...so I was hoping for five hours of relaxation.
We travelled North of Eugene and the road became a two lane country road.
Finally we arrived. Hundreds and HUndreds of Cars!
People dressed in strange costume. Silly costumes and funny dress.
We walked through ribbons and crowds of people....
The area was forested and vendors and booths were everywhere.
I remember commenting to my husband that it was a bit like Mardi Gras( I have never been to one of these either) and a bit of what I imagined a Hippie reunion combination would be like.
We walked and walked to different perfomances.
Suddenly a woman in her late 50's was walking towards us!
She was totally nude from the waist up. I did a double take as did my husband and 19 year old!
A few minutes later...a woman with a six month old....turned in the path facing us and She was nude waist up...she flipped the baby over and started feeding him as she was walking.
We saw two men dressed in Loin clothes and not much else.
Security was everywhere, and nothing was being done about it! Little children and teenagers were everywhere. I guess you may say it was a culture shock!
Most everyone was dressed fully.... just a few women here and there.......and a few men....
In the Army, we lose so much of our privacy....and I try to be modest everywhere I go......
I guess people like displaying themselves. Most of them were very overweight, to obese.
There were parades, and outlandish costumes.
We smelled what I understand was pot in the air. We passed many booths with Childrens projects going on. Psychics and Tarot readers were around every corner.
In front of the main stage, we heard some wonderful musicans, but it was distracting to see a young man doing a mediatative marital arts, in the view of everyone who was trying to see the perfomers on stage. Later we saw that he was 'on something.'
The other sounds, sights and things to see were interesting.
We walked around for a little over four hours, finding out that the Orignal "Patch Adams" had spoken on a stage at 1 pm, and we had missed it.
I was so disappointed. I had loved the movie on his life.....and had I known he was there that day.....it would have been my first stop!
I was getting tired of the nudity and the antics that were going along with it....so we decided to leave the Fair an hour before it ended.....and to beat the traffic jam upon its conclusion.
My other son, had gone home earlier in the day....and we had missed him.....so we drove to Springfield to say goodby before we hit the road southbound and back home.
All in all...it was an OK day....loved some of the bands that played and some of the shows....but
I don't think we will return to the Oregon Country Fair again.
Color me a prude, or too modest.....but.......I was very uncomfortable as was my husband and 19 year old.
I am looking forward to the trip back east this week. I will be conducting Army business, Attending a Reunion of very, Very Distant cousins I discovered a few years back......and gathering information for my future Capstone project towards my BS.
I have invited my husband and two sons to go with, to help with the Driving......
No comments:
Post a Comment