High Life: A Weekly Forum For High School Students : What’s Fair Is Fair : Outings: Someone who’s never placed much stock in county fairs does a turnaround after an evening at Orange County’s centennial celebration.

Fairs have never meant much to me, which probably accounts for the fact that this year’s 100th annual Orange County Fair is the first I remember attending.

It also accounts for the surprise I felt at the enthusiasm expressed by my friends when I suggested that’s were we spend the evening.

I expected to find nothing more than a bunch of farm animals and an endless number of pie-eating contests. Fortunately, I was mistaken--and the most convincing factors in the fair’s favor were its carnival rides. They turned out to be more than any of us had bargained for.

My friends and I had conveniently stuffed ourselves with junk food before we entered the amusement area, and that gave us a great excuse for chickening out on some of the bigger, more violent rides.

We started off with a ride so gentle (so we thought) you had to walk through it. But traversing “Club Fun” would not be as easy as it first seemed.

Discs on the ground would suddenly spin, flinging you around a corner. Rollers set in the floor would cause you to stumble down a hallway. A ladder cut down the middle vertically would move each half in opposite directions.

Although it was frustrating, “Club Fun” provided much laughter as we were flung into one another many times.

Our biggest mistake of the evening came at the end, when we decided to go on a seemingly harmless ride to use up our last coupons.

“Force 10” looked like a kiddie ride that spun around just fast enough to keep a 9-year-old amused. The convincing factors were that there was no line, we were tired, and that one of the operators was doing a great job of lip-syncing to the music blaring over the ride’s loudspeakers.

Once we got into the seats and the ride began, we realized that not only was it more than we expected (as it turned us nearly upside down), but also that we should have believed the sign that said the ride exerts a force of three Gs.

By the time the ride was over, it was too late for our might-get-sick excuse , as the danger of that happening was close at hand.

“Force 10” was definitely the most exciting event of the evening. Unfortunately the high cost of tickets (average $2.40 a ride) kept us from going on more.

Although our decision to attend the fair was made on the spur of the moment, we had planned not to spend too much money. Even the number of us who went was determined by the fact that car pools of four or more didn’t have to pay the $3 for parking.

We also planned ahead enough to bring along an AAA Automobile Club card--one of many that will do the trick--for a discount of $1 off the $5 admission.

Once inside, our first priority was to see Mark and Brian, announcers on radio station KLOS-FM, introduce the Temptations, who were to perform that night at the Arlington Theater.

In an effort to kill some time before Mark and Brian would hit the stage, we visited the huge display of photographs and paintings by county residents. Teens shouldn’t go out of their way to avoid the display; it had something for everyone, ranging from nature and pets to cartoon-like scenes and images of the ever-popular Michael Jordan.

With time time worries cutting our display visit short, we began looking for seats for the Temptations’ second show of the evening. Although we were a good distance from the stage, we had a perfect view of the mime whose pre-concert job was to make fun of audience members and to keep us from wondering how soon the concert would start.

After listening to Mark and Brian’s introduction and to a few songs we had never heard before, half of our group left, realizing they were not only in the wrong place, but in the wrong generation.

As the woman next to me screamed, “Sing It Baby,” all I could do was yawn, and it became obvious I didn’t share the enthusiasm of the hundreds of others who were reliving their youths.

By the time the Temptations began their sixth song, hunger got the best of the rest of us and we left.

Although the fairgrounds were lined with food vendors, not only could nothing be bought for less than $2, but also none of the portions were much bigger than a candy bar. And everything was “on a stick”--not just your standard corn dog, but egg rolls and pizza too.

With the little money I had remaining, I was able to bring home a souvenir of the evening: a tattoo.

OK, I’m not brave enough to get a real tattoo, but the selection of the decals that they said would last about five days seemed of utmost importance, requiring nearly 30 minutes to select and another 15 to decide where I wanted it. Now, the sword on my collar bone will remind me of my experience at the Orange County Fair.