Annual Event’s Cacophony of Sights, Sounds and Experiences Proves a Real Crowd Pleaser

Fireworks, thrill rides and monster zucchini. The 1998 Ventura County Fair has something for almost everyone.

Just ask Alyse Frank, 11, and her brother, Adam, 8. The Ventura youths took home armloads of stuffed animals and pockets full of trinkets they won at ball toss and other games of chance.

Another happy fair-goer this week was Camarillo’s Kim Turner, who along with her horse “Waylon Jennings” won third place in a fence-jumping competition.

Then there’s 8-year-old Port Hueneme resident Marcel Mendez, a contestant in the Backyard Farmer Contest that included categories such as the tallest corn stalk, the longest string bean and the biggest avocado.

Marcel’s vegetable entry: a whopping 10-pound zucchini. Good show. But the big winner was John West of Ventura, whose oversized Italian squash weighed in at more than 12, according to contest officials.

Not everyone who attends the fair is a contestant or a thrill seeker.

Leo Vanoni, who favors a straw hat and colorful Western shirts and suspenders, is a longtime fair volunteer who loves his job. Better known as Uncle Leo, he is responsible for leading fair-goers on a barnyard tour designed to put them in touch with farm animals, including pigs and chickens.

How much does Uncle Leo love his job? Well, he’s been doing it for 43 of his 83 years.

Other volunteers include 13-year-old Alexandria Ramirez. As a “wandering hostess,” her job is to answer questions from fair-goers, like, What time do the fireworks start? That would be 9:30 p.m.