Children Get the Jump on Youth Day

Today is Youth Day at the Ventura County Fair, but some youngsters got a head start Thursday, plunging into a variety of attractions designed especially for kids.

In Fair City, a hands-on center in the Youth Building, children served each other make-believe fast-food at Beary’s Burger Hut, worked in a kiddie-size fire station, painted “legal graffiti” and tried to adjust to Wacky House, where everything is upside-down.

In the Children’s Dell, youngsters 7 and under competed in a trike pull, a junior version of truck and tractor pulls. Todd Singletary and his sister, Dawn, of Santa Paula won their respective divisions.

Though only 5, Todd is an old-timer at the trike pull, which involves pulling a weighted sled a maximum of 25 feet.

Todd, who went the maximum distance, was victorious for the third year in a row, winning this year in the division for 5- to 7-year-olds. Dawn, 3, placed first among 3- and 4-year-olds with a pull of 18 feet, 5 inches.

“We just ride our bikes a lot,” Todd said, explaining their success. Twelve tricyclists were entered in each division.

As part of Youth Day today, children 12 and under will be admitted free to the County Fairgrounds on Harbor Boulevard in Ventura.

Attendance on opening day Wednesday was 17,508, 14% more than the 15,326 who visited the fair on its first day last year.

Michael A. Paluszak, the fair’s general manager, attributed the increase to “great weather and the fact that people are in the mood to have a good time.”

A free show by the Smothers Brothers on Wednesday night also may have bolstered attendance, Paluszak said. The show attracted 5,000 in the Grandstand Arena.