Monday, August 26, 2013

The County Fair/Miss Victory


Ever notice how real pigs look nothing like cartoon pigs?
Well, it was another great Lorain County Fair. The spouse and I made it out there on Friday night, and the weather was perfect for one of my favorite days of the year.

Also perfect were our Rutana's Hot Apple Dumplings – the best we've ever had at the fair. In fact, the dumplings were so fresh, hot and delicious that we decided to add them to our "best ever" list.

For dinner, I enjoyed my usual Midway Oh Boy, while the spouse traitorously opted for a stromboli for the second year in a row. Fortunately, she couldn't finish it, so Ol' Vacuum (me) finished it off.

We walked around the whole fair at least three or four times. I still get a kick out of examining the artwork for the banners of the International Palace of Illusion (below).

Back in 1976 when I spent a few weeks at the Ohio State Fair in Columbus as a member of the All-Ohio State Fair Band, I saw a few of these same freak (is it politically correct to call it that?) shows. One of them I remember was the woman with the body of a large snake. She looked ludicrous, and I'm ashamed to admit that a bunch of us band members acted like wise-guys, heckling the poor performer. To her credit, she ignored us completely to keep the illusion alive.
Anyway, here are a few more sights from the 2013 Lorain County Fair.
Good to see Captain Frosty was there at the Fair as usual!
Now that's what I call "togetherness."

****
Miss Victory is Armed Again!
A week and a half ago, Loraine Ritchey (of That Woman's Weblog) tipped me off to something big-big-BIG!
She told me that plans were in the works for the statue of Miss Victory down at the little park at West Erie and Fifth Street to get her sword and palm fronds back, thanks to the efforts of Buckeye Sheet Metal and the Lorain Elks.
So, on Saturday while crisscrossing Lorain on my usual jaunts, I noticed some activity at the park (at left). The scaffolding surrounding Miss Liberty confirmed what Loraine said.   
I drove by a few times in mid-afternoon to check their progress, and on my final drive-by an hour or so later, I was able to see the almost-finished result. 
Miss Victory didn't have her palm fronds yet, but it was sure nice to see her once again brandishing a sword.

But I still don't know who put up the original Big V – or when! Anybody got any ideas?!?

3 comments:

LCrnobrnja said...

Perhaps the city?

April 6, 1922

http://lorain.lib.oh.us/research/local-research/local-history-resources/history-of-lorain-ohio--chronology

Dan Brady said...

Hi Larry!
Thanks for posting a suggestion!
I did go back to the newspaper reports of when the statue was first unveiled (I did a post on it), and could find no mention of the Big V being installed at the same time. It was not mentioned in any of the articles about the various Victory parades or ceremonies following WWI or WWII. I also researched countless holidays (Memorial Day, Veterans Day, etc) in which newspaper articles were written about the parks being upgraded and cleaned up and there were no mentions of the V in those either. I've checked the Black River Historical Society archives, the Lorain Public Library's various archives, and even polled various local historians plus the Elks--and nobody knows! I called the city's Parks Dept. and they tried to help, but they couldn't find anything in their files and nobody remembered. Lastly, I've been going through various years of microfilm looking for a photo or a mention of it--with nothing to show! I've scanned the subscription service Newspaper Archives also but since they only have Elyria and Sandusky papers (none from Lorain) I can find no mention there either!

I personally think it was sometime between the late 50s and early 60s myself because I'm pretty sure it was there in the early 60s when we drove by it on the way to my grandparents' house once in a while. We do know it was knocked down a few times by cars and the one that is there is not the original. I also think it might have been a school project.

LCrnobrnja said...

Lorain's Stonehenge?