All Things Furry, Small to Reign at County Fair

Elmer Fudd would cringe.

For the 97th annual Orange County Fair, it’s going to be here a wabbit, there a wabbit, everywhere, a wabbit, wabbit.

A pair of white Flemish giants, Bud and Blossom, will be the mascots for the 12-day event that begins at noon Wednesday. Each weighs about 17 pounds and, being members of the largest of the rabbit breeds, is about twice the size of your average hopper. In addition, there will be about 75 other, smaller rabbits hippety-hopping around in the rabbit tent.

The fair theme this year is “Stop & Smell the Flowers,” a salute to small animals, plants in general and the county’s largest agricultural crop, nursery flowers, in particular. Because bunnies are small animals that feel at home among plants and flowers, they were chosen to give a cuddly character to the event, said Jill Lloyd, a spokeswoman for the fair.

Bud and Blossom have already celebrated their status, said Chris DeSurra, the fair’s small-animal supervisor, with a litter of 10 identical little fur balls.

‘Passive, Affectionate’

DeSurra, 20, who lives in Costa Mesa and is an Orange Coast College student, is keeping Bud and Blossom and their brood at his house. DeSurra, who was involved in 4-H as a youth, has been breeding rabbits for several years. The pair, although not members of his favorite breed, are special, DeSurra said.

“They’re not big, stupid, hyper rabbits,” DeSurra said. “They’re so passive and affectionate. Every time you pass by them, they want to be scratched or petted.”

This is the fourth year a mascot has gone forth and multiplied. In 1983, Rosy produced piglets; the next year, a horse produced a colt; and in 1986, Fairah the cow gave birth to a calf, Fairoh. “We’ve been lucky, I guess,” Lloyd said of the mascots’ proclivity to procreate.

The fair originated in 1892, when its focus was on livestock and horse racing. Then, folks arrived in horse-drawn buggies and the strongest brew sold there was lemonade and sarsaparilla. Through the years, though, it, like other county fairs, has evolved into an event featuring something for almost everyone.

There will be hundreds of exhibitions and food booths; carnival rides and performances by music groups, clowns and acrobats. There will also be many contests and games for children and adults, and some--such as Pin the Tail on the Rabbit and Stuff the Rabbit (a contest to see how many people can pile into a Volkswagen) will carry through the rabbit theme.

Still, the fair shows its roots in the many livestock and gardening events.

“It’s a nice touch to keep the fair agricultural; it’s simply not another carnival,” Costa Mesa City Manager Allan L. Roeder said.

This year also marks the fair’s 50th anniversary at the Costa Mesa Fairgrounds.

For senior citizens Margaret and Sirio Giardini of Huntington Beach, the fair offers another opportunity to remember that they have been together more than 50 years. Margaret, 76, and Sirio, 77, celebrated their 54th anniversary June 16, but they will be sharing the spotlight with other couples celebrating 50 years or more together in a Seniors Golden Wedding ceremony to be conducted on Senior Day, July 20.

For the Giardinis, though, wedding vows are something to be reaffirmed over and over. They have repeated them on four other occasions since they were first married in 1935.

“What can I say? It’s fun saying it together,” said Margaret Giardini of their affinity for marriage ceremonies. “There aren’t many who last till their 50th.” The secret to a long marriage, she confided, is being patient with each other, to give as well as take.

Larger Attendance Expected

Attendance at this year’s fair, which will have the longest run yet, is expected to exceed last year’s record of 489,000, Lloyd said.

Fair hours will be noon to midnight Monday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to midnight Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Admission prices are $4 for children over 12 and adults under 65, $2 for senior citizens and children 6 to 12. Children 5 and younger will be admitted free. In addition, there will be a number of special-price days. Parking will be $2 in the lots around the fairgrounds.

Although there may be traffic jams to test fair-goers’ tempers on the way in, the fair itself should be a mellow affair, rabbits and all, Lloyd said.

Unlike, it is hoped, the 1984 fair, which featured a king-size embarrassment.

Fair officials had paid $20,000 to rent a 72-foot inflatable vinyl King Kong, the same primate who had been propped against the Empire State Building in New York City earlier that year to mark a motion picture company’s anniversary.

At the fair, the gorilla swung upright on long poles for two days, receiving much media attention for his presence. But by the third day, the King’s reign had ended.

Ground workers started using the air that circulated inside the giant balloon to cool down. They workers bragged to others that they had walked inside, entering Kong through a zipper flap in his right foot, Lloyd said. Eventually, the zipper tore away and Kong collapsed in a mass of vinyl, also to much media attention.

“I almost died myself,” she said.