The coastland times., 1954-10-29
BY Dick Jordan

tunlty to spend five days at the
North Carolina State Fair. / just
had the privilege-if you can call it
such-of maintaining a Lost Col
ony booth in the huge arena build
ing usually referred to locally as
"Scott's Cow Palace. l estimate
that at least a quarter of a million
people saw the Lost Colony booth
located in the lobby of the arena
during the five days that the fair
was open. We distributed approx
mately $4,000 of our new folders
to the interested ones who stopped
to see the model of the Waterside
Theatre which was the feature of
our display.
1t is surprising how hard it is
these days to give something away,
especially at a State Fair. From
the time person enters the gate
after paying 75e admission, the
main object of the various con-
cessionaires seems to be to separ-
ate this particular person from
whatever money he happens to
have in his pocket, and consequent
ly, when something is offered for
free this person is naturally sus-
picious and Immediately begins
looking for the "gimmick" behind
the offer. We finally managed to
convince everyone that there were
no fees attached to our offer of
literature and consequently most
were delighted to enjoy the novelty
of receiving something for moth
ing.
After watching seevral thousand
people pass slowly by the booth
and listening to the usual re-
marks, it was somewhat of relief
to take a walk around the grounds
and watch the others at work.
Since we were located in such a
central point, we not only passed
out Lost Colony information but
acted as a general information
booth for the whole fair. The ques-
tions that were asked most fire.
quently l list below according to
their Importance:
/. Where are the rest rooms?
2. Is there a telephone in the
building?
8. Did Hurricane Hazel damage
the theatre?
4. Have you seen anything of a
siX-year-old boy in blue sweater
eating an ice cream cone?
5. What time does the rodeo
start?
6. Do you know where Mrs.
Jones is displaying her canned
peaches?
Z. What time is it?
These questions, along with hun
dreds of others, kept US busy from
ten in the morning until ten at
night and / was thankful when
the day was done to retire to the
peace and quiet of my room at a
nearby motel and try to regain
enough strength to face the crowd
another day.
The food that was sold within
the gates of the fair ground left a
lot to be desired. l had my choice
of fried hot logs, fried hambur-
gers, fried barbecue, fried chicken,
fried bacon, fried ham and fried
potatoes, and / think all of the
concessionaires used the same
grease that they saved from last
years fair. The average stomach
may be able to stand such a diet
for one day but not for FIVE. After
the first day l was lucky enough to
find a woman's club booth that
served Brunswick stew and l lived
on that for the rest of the week.
Hundreds of skin games and clip
joints were in evidence all along
the midway; hawking their usual
inferior merchandise. Probably the
most obvious were the characters
who guaranteed on payment of
25f to guess your weight or your
age within two or three pounds or
years. You paid your quarter and
he looked you over thoroughly, and
if he guessed your weight you
lost your two bits. If he missed it
more than three pounds you were
allowed the privilege of stepping
up to his display stand and choos-
ing any prize that you liked. The
prizes were worth at least five or
ten cents at the most, so even if
you win, you lose. The vendor has
your two bits and you have a ten
cent china doll so everybody is
happy.
The usual number of auction
eers were busy selling 90c pen
and pencil sets for five to ten dol
1arc apd S7 S0 xuafchac from COX M