Hello, this is Stephanie and this is talk tales and trivia, the show where I talk about pop culture and trivia. Listen here, I'm a mad researcher on pop culture and trivia and I love to give all that information to you so that you can stump your friends. It is so much fun. Listen on today's episode I am talking about the local fair. You remember the local fair when you were a child, perhaps maybe there was a local fair in your community as there is all over the world and all over this country and I want to tell you a little more about it starting right now. Well, some people say the fair is the pinnacle of their spring and summer outings and their family outings and what they do with their friends and family on perhaps a weekday night or a weekend night when there is not much going on. But let me tell you something where I grew up the fair or the local fair or the carnival was a wonderful thing to have and to do because I grew up in a neighborhood where there wasn't a lot to do, but let me start with a little history on the local fair or carnival as it's sometimes called. Well, a local fair or carnival is traveling entertainment with sideshows rides and especially one that visits places at the same time each year. Well, it's true. Every spring we would have the same fair going on. It's an event including amusement rides and sales of goods, especially for charity, a bizarre and great food, which we'll talk about a little later on. Two of my favorite fair foods, well on 1893 the Chicago world's fair was the catalyst for the development of the traveling carnival and that is so cool. The Chicago world's fair had an area that included rides, games of chance freak shows, and burlesque. Well, that was so cool and interesting for those people. After the Chicago's world fair traveling carnival companies began touring the United States...due to the type of acts featured along with dishonest business practices, the traveling carnivals were often looked down upon, not by me. The first fairground rides began to appear in the 18th century. These were small made of wood and propelled by gangs of boys in the 19th century before the development of mechanical attractions, sideshows were the mainstay of most fun fairs. Typical shows included, menageries of wild animals, freak shows, waxworks, boxing and wrestling challenges and theatrical shows. At many carnivals or fairs, there are food stands, yummy food stands, the kind of food stands I love. Depending on the size of the carnival, there may be one or more food stand on site. The food stands serve a variety of food and beverages and I just loved that when I went to my local fair getting all those cool foods and beverages. Examples are snack items like cotton candy, ice cream, yum... fried dough. Oh my gosh. Funnel cake and candy or caramel apples and french fries...all very good meal items may include pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken beverages may include soda, coffee, tea and lemonade. That was the best is the food. Local and regional specialties along with ethnic foods are often available at carnivals or local fairs. Many carnivals after the year 2000 offered empanadas and tacos at autumn carnivals, drinks like hot cider or hot chocolate maybe featured along with harvest items. Well, I always went to the fairs that happen in the spring and summer and I loved every single bit of it. Items like deep fried candy bars and deep fried Twinkies and dip and dots ice cream and the blooming onion are some of the food items found at carnivals nowadays and I just loved that...you know, when I was a kid, going to the carnival was so exciting because it meant that I was meeting friends. It meant that I was having a great time and it meant so much to me. Eating all these foods that I don't usually get to eat and that is so wonderful for everybody involved. As I got older, I found that I wasn't going for the rides, but I was going mostly for the camaraderie of friends and family and the food items. In the past many traveling carnivals also had sideshows accompanying them while not in the carnivals I went to, and then when I got older and out of school, I found myself not really going to the carnival or the local fair until my nieces were old enough and I went with them. That was so cool because it allowed me to go on the rides again and enjoy some great carnival or local fair food. Yes, I will be going to the local fair or carnival as it may be called in your neck of the woods this year as I have in the past. I love it so much and I hope you do too. Listen, ride the ferris wheel...go on those rides and eat that food that you don't usually get to have. It's so much fun. BOOK PROMO Have you ever experienced a cataclysmic event that has left you in a disoriented and confusing world? Gwendolyn has thankfully been shown the way to a wonderful existence that no one at first could have ever imagined, not even her. Southpaw - A Tale About A Girl's Imagination by Stephanie Lee. Okay, so now I'm going to talk a little bit about my two favorite local fare or carnival foods that I just love, but are they food? It's debatable, but let me tell you a little history about the two food type items that I'm talking about. Well, first up is cotton candy. Well, that's food, surely. Well, it's sugary and sweet and so delicious to eat. Well, the history of cotton candy is so cool just by the fact that it was invented by a dentist. I'm not kidding. It really was. And it is a great story. So listen up here. Well, cotton candy is made and sold globally. I'm sure that mostly all of us knew that, right? It is sold as fairy floss and Australia and New Zealand, candy floss and the UK, Ireland, Egypt, India and Sri Lanka and, tooth floss and South Africa. But cotton candy is cotton candy in the United States. Well, cotton candy was invented in 1897 by a dentist named William Morrison and confectionary, John C Wharton. Yep. I told you now there's a piece of trivia to keep under your hat for party lulls. Yes. Cotton candy was invented by a dentist and first introduced to a wide audience at the 1904 world's fair as fairy floss. Well, it was a great success and it sold 68,555 boxes at 25 cents a box and that's the equivalent of $7 and 11 cents in today's market...isn't that cool?! On September 6, 1905 Albert D. Robinson of Lynn, Massachusetts submitted his patent for an electric candy spinning machine. The patent was for a combination of an electric starter, motor driven rotatable bowl that maintained heating efficiently. By may of 1907 he transferred the rights to the General Electric Company of New York. His patent still remains today as the basic cotton candy machine. Well in 1978 when I was just a little tiny little bb baby, the first automated machine was used for the production of cotton candy. Since then, the creations and innovations of this machine have become greater and greater. They really have. They range in sizes from countertop, accessible to party and size carnivals, ummmm...cotton candy. Modern machines that are made for commercial use can hold up to three pounds of sugar. That sounds really good...and have compartments for storage of extra flavors. The rotating bowl at the top spins at 3,450 revolutions per minute. That's fast. So next time you're at a local fair or carnival, as it may be called in your neck of the woods, stump your family and friends with this little piece of trivia about the cotton candy and it's machine. Well, next up is one of my favorite local fair foods and it is the funnel cake. What is that? Well it is fried dough and that is the simplest way to describe it. That's right. You just take a little mixture of dough and you put it into some oil and you fry it up and then you put powdered sugar or strawberries and whipped cream on it. It's so good. And I have had that all over the world. For me it's a carnival favorite! But let's do a little history on the funnel cake. Well, what makes a funnel cake a funnel cake? Well of course it involves funnels and how you pour the pancake type batter into the hot oil, but there is a little history behind funnel cakes that I bet you maybe perhaps didn't know or maybe you did, but I'm going to tell you about it right now. Well, the funnel cake concept dates back to the early medieval Persian world where similar yeast risen dishes were first prepared and later spread to Europe. That's right. And the Pennsylvania Dutch immigrants brought the yeast dish to America and around 1879 they developed the baking powder version along with its new name funnel cake. Well that's a great story, but still it goes on. In North America funnel cakes were originally associated with the Pennsylvania Dutch country. It is one of the first North American fried foods which is associated with the Pennsylvania Dutch German immigrants who came to Pennsylvania in the 17th and 18th centuries. Wow. That was a long time ago. The Pennsylvania Dutch called the first funnel cakes drechderkuch. Today it is a staple dish that can be found at amusement parks and fairs all over the country. As we know very well. The name funnel cake came from the technique used to make the cakes in which the pancake like batter is poured into a hot oil through a funnel. It is so much fun to make and you can make that with your family and friends at home, as well. Listen, the YouTube videos will be in the show notes. They're quite interesting and entertaining and perhaps you can try these recipes on a rainy day when you have nothing else to do. Hey, listen, I would to know if you plan to go to a carnival or local fair this spring or summer when they are hot, hot, hot. You can email me at [email protected] . That's me!!! Or you can go to talktalesandtrivia.com to listen to past episodes, present episodes, and future episodes. They're all there and also there is a little tiny bio on me. If you're wondering who I am. Hey, if you've enjoyed this episode and this podcast Talk, Tales and Trivia, go on over to growing uncomfortable.com where you can listen to my second podcast growing uncomfortable, where I talk about getting out of your comfortable situation and getting a little uncomfortable to get the dreams and desires and the results you want in life. It is so cool. You can get to my social media links from the show notes, or you can go to talk us and trivia.com or growing uncomfortable.com either way, that's such a cool thing. Also, I must say, subscribe, subscribe, subscribe to both podcasts. It's free, free, free, free, free, free, free. It really is and it's so simple. That way I know how many people are listening. It's a great thing for me to know because that way I can plan my show. Hey, that rhymed. I gotta get outta here, but I hope that you have fun at the carnival or local fair and I hope that you share your stories with me. Okay. Bye. Bye.