Moving into the country's last tent fair

[Sixties Sam]

OK, this one takes some explaining. In my home town of Centre Hall, PA we have an annual event called the Grangr Fair & Encampment. This is its 137th year! It's a typical rural fair, but with a difference. Families move into 980 tents (and 1,500 RV's) for a week on the grounds. Tent fairs were common in the horse and buggy days, but as cars became commonplace, the tents disappeared in all the fairs...except this one. They are a part of the culture around here. This diorama depicts the moving in day in the mid-1950's. I exhibited in the fair's adult handcrafts area at this year's fair which just ended. Most of the diorama is scratch built. The models are a Revell 57 Chevy 150, and Ford F-100 pickup, which I posted here a while ago.The trailer is built from sheet styrene and evergreen channel, with 32 Ford fenders and wheels. The tents are poster board covered with cloth. The furniture and fridge are old 1/24th scale plastic doll furniture from a local antique/knickknack shop. The yellow 1950's lawn furniture is craft wire and sheet styrene. Adirondack chair and tent floors are made from wooden coffee stirrers. The base is blue foam insulation, painted green and covered with sawdust, then sprayed green with touches of brown and gray. First pic is at the fair exhibit building. 2nd and 3rd pics are outside shots taken a couple weeks ago. It certainly is different, isn't it? I hope you like it. Check out grangefair.net for info on the Grange Fair.

[Eshaver]

Sam, I'm old enough to remember such Fairs . Sometime in the future , Check out Field Day of the Past . It's just such an exhibition of steam industrial engines , road building machinery, antique tractors , and music . I think you can Google Field Day of the past for dates and lodging . Very nice diorama ! Ed Shaver

[ChrisR]

Nice diorama!

[Jim B]

Nice job. This is an interesting subject.

[crazyjim]

That's pretty neat, Sam.

Where do you get all the people?

[glusnifr]

are those minimen figures?

[Sixties Sam]

Two of the people are Ulrich Mini-Men (unloading lawn chair and sofa), the guy in the trailer is from Scale Equipment Ltd., and the others are G scale model train figures (by Preiser, I think).

Thanks for the compliments, all. I realize this dio is a little oddball for this forum, but it does have cars in it. I made it mainly for the fair exhibit, and got a few compliments from folks there. It was a fun project!

Sam

[Scalper]

very cool..