A Fair Effort

In previous years, this day meant trouble.

Carnies and concessionaires at the Fairplex in Pomona had precious few minutes to talk Thursday as they barbecued the roasts, lined up the frozen bananas and washed down the rides before the sun rose today, opening day, on the ephemeral megalopolis that is the Los Angeles County Fair.

But the whole thing fell into place splendidly, and Howard Lindsey couldn’t have been more impressed.

Having helped run food booths at the fair for 36 years, Lindsey has day-before-opening stories that “shouldn’t be in the paper.”

Like the time a booth caught fire and the people in it were severely burned. Or when a spare tire fell from a moving truck, ricocheted off a parked van and blasted into Lindsey’s sandwich stand, narrowly missing the window behind which stood Lindsey and his crew.

“Things used to be more frenetic around here,” he said, watching flames lick the nine enormous beef roasts on his barbecue booth’s grill. “This looks calmer than it usually does.”

Across the 487-acre fairgrounds, workers scrambled to prepare rides, shows, arts and crafts booths, petting zoos and rows of food booths.

Sid Robinson, communications manager for the fair, said he is annually awe-struck at the professionalism that arises from the last-minute chaos.

“I’ve been here some years, actually quite late into the evening sometimes, and said, ‘Now how are we going to be ready for tomorrow?’ But without fail, we were ready,” he said.

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Workers said a post office substation was set up in a matter of hours but, paradoxically, the hanging of two Budweiser signs on the top of the Fairplex’s grandstand stadium took three days.

As with the labor-intensive sign-hanging, much of the work at the fair had to wait until the last minute.

In the flower and garden pavilion, harried florists explained that they had to complete their arrangements no later than noon Thursday--but not too long before then.

Throughout the day, as flower arrangements were completed and 7,000-pound orders of pork were stored, workers signaled their relief and smiled--as Daum did when, after several hours of labor, he could pack up his crane and announce simply: “All done!”