Valleywide : Heat Fails to Stop the Fun as Fair Opens

With temperatures hovering above the 100-degree mark, Thursday was a day for staying indoors and keeping cool.

For Burbank resident Neal Heggendorn, it was a day of fun and games with grandkids Bethany Hale, 8, and Jacob Hoogenhuizen, 4, at the opening day at the 49th annual San Fernando Valley Fair.

First stop--the midway, where the kids tried unsuccessfully to spear Barney the dinosaur with a dart.

“Some of ‘em look so easy,” an exasperated Bethany said several minutes later after failing to sink a softball in a basket.

“That’s why they stay in business,” Heggendorn replied sagely.

Their luck soon changed. At a booth promising winners every time, the children landed this year’s souvenir--an inflatable hockey stick for Jacob and an inflatable bat for Bethany.

“We finally lucked out,” Grandpa said.

From there, the children moved to more physical amusements, making multiple runs through a two-story fun house, their faces flushed.

Next came the Gravitron, a giant spinning spaceship that left them blissfully dizzy.

“I wanna go back on,” Bethany declared.

“No way!” Jacob replied.

A veteran of several Valley fairs, Heggendorn noted that the country fairs of his youth in Kansas had “more farm stuff” but that the contemporary version is still “a good thing for kids and old folks to enjoy.”

The trio made a brief tour of the livestock tent but after 90 minutes of cows, pigs, snow cones and thrill rides, they all agreed it was time to head home.

All except Jacob, who made his way to the parking lot whacking Grandpa with the hockey stick.