From Pig Races to Vintage Tractors, Fair Offers Thrills to Young and Old

First-timers and old-timers mingled Thursday afternoon at the San Fernando Valley Fair, where they could ride a llama, see an award-winning giant zucchini, buy a jacuzzi and watch wild Asian pigs in racing silks waddle around a track of wood shavings.

The fair, which offers carnival rides, horticultural exhibits, livestock competitions and concerts, runs through Sunday at Cal State Northridge.

For first-timer Lisa Quiroz, 9, of Sylmar, an immense pig nursing nine piglets shattered all her preconceived notions of the species.

“I thought they’d be walking around and looking around, but they just sit there,” she said. “This one just breathes, and its whole body jiggles around. I think if it tried to get up on its legs it would just fall right down again.”

The event also had its share of fair veterans. Members of Branch 22 of the Early Day Gas Engine and Tractor Assn. were there, displaying early 20th-century machinery and reminiscing about life on the farm.

Doctor’s Orders

“I had a heart attack and the doctor told me to look for something to do, so I went and bought a tractor,” said Jack Barton of Van Nuys, who displayed his 1917 Waterloo Boy Tractor, made in Waterloo, Iowa.

The Waterloo Boy brought back fond memories for Don Liljedahl of Granada Hills, who rode a similar machine every day on his father’s grain farm in Essex, Iowa. “It’s nice to reminisce,” he said. “I used to relieve dad at 4:30 and ride into the night, even though we didn’t have lights on the tractor. I never had a regular date with my wife because I never knew when I’d get off the tractor.”

Bill May, also a member of Branch 22, said he loves talking to old-time farmers. “We’ve had people come to fairs and get tears in their eyes. They’ll say, ‘Let me throw one more bundle in that threshing machine.’ ”

May said the group tries to encourage children to get interested in the machinery. “Kids today, they don’t even know milk comes from a cow. They think it comes from a carton.”

The fair, held on CSUN’s Devonshire Downs fairgrounds since 1975, probably will be moved next year to the Pierce College campus in Woodland Hills, fair officials said. CSUN officials plan a $200-million academic and commercial development on the fair’s present site.

The fair is open Friday from noon to 11 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Admission is $4 for adults and $2 for children and those 55 and older.