Fair Fine-Tuned for Wednesday--the Opening Day

Don Hardy yanked on an engine cord, and the bumper boat started to spin, collide and splash in the 45,000-gallon tank Monday at the Orange County Fairgrounds.

Although this year’s fair, the 97th annual affair, wasn’t opening for another two days, the careening boat was a welcome sight to Hardy, who had spent the past three days setting up the tank, filling the boats with gas and giving them a fresh coat of paint.

For the scores of workers setting up the 35 major rides and 50 games on the fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, Monday was a time to put finishing touches on the fair, which starts Wednesday and runs through July 23.

Getting ready for a fair has become old hat for Hardy. He has done it for 16 years. This was the eighth time this year alone that he had helped set up the bumper boats.

“This will get on your nerves by the end,” he said. “I’m getting old for this. When I’m done, I’m ready to go home. No kids, nothing.”

This year’s fair includes hundreds of exhibitions and food booths, performances by clowns, acrobats and music groups, and contests and games geared to the fair’s theme, “Stop & Smell the Flowers.”

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 under will be admitted free.

Parking costs $2 in fairgrounds lots. To ease traffic congestion around the fairgrounds, drivers are being urged to take the Harbor Boulevard exit of the San Diego Freeway or the Fairview Road exit on the Corona del Mar Freeway.

This year’s rides include the usual assortment of Ferris wheels, roller-coasters, giant slides and haunted houses. A few rides, like the Cyclone Coaster and the Global Wheel, are brand-new and will have their maiden voyages at the fair. At 100 feet, the Global Wheel is the tallest ride ever set up at the fair, fair spokeswoman Jill Lloyd said.

On one ride, the Dark River, passengers in tiny boats will float on a stream that includes mummies, skeletons, booby traps and strobe lights. On Monday, ride operators were plotting where they would jump out, dressed in black, at passengers.

“We just come out and they lose it,” said a carnival worker known as Rebel, 36, his hands tacky from the glue he was using to secure a piece of black plywood.

Rewards for Skillful

The scene was more lighthearted at the Star Darts booth, where about half a dozen workers were nearly done. They were hanging 800 stuffed dogs, which can be won at $1 per dart try, if the players are either skillful or lucky, or both. These carnival workers, the preliminaries behind them, were ready to start making money.

“If this is work, then you’ve had it,” said Franklin Williamson. “If you don’t enjoy it, and you don’t enjoy meeting with the public, you won’t last 10 minutes.”

The workers expect to make a good wage as well. Marisa Pollak, 24, who has worked at carnivals for five years, said she expected to gross about $3,000 for two weeks of handing out darts.

“It beats a minimum-wage job,” she said. “Here, you are like your own boss.”

At Oh, Chute, a 40-foot spiraling slide, Karen Osborn and Brenda Hanaker were dressing up the bottom of their ride with a red and yellow striped skirt.

Sweeping Duties Ahead

Osborn’s daughter, Heidi, 10, already had tested the slide. But she, too, will be busy once the fair starts.

“She’s got to sweep,” Osborn said.

Meanwhile, in a dirt field near the games and rides, Fernando Naraneo, along with three other workers, were busily constructing the scaffolding that will be used in a high-dive show. Naraneo, who was pulling up a heavy metal pipe, had reservations about being up so high.

“I’m usually down on the ground,” he said. “This is the first time I’ve done this. It’s a little scary.”