What County Fairs Are Good For

In a Relentlessly Changing California, They Offer up a Little Bit of Charming Continuity

I’m feeling guilty for having failed, as of this writing, to fulfill a central responsibility of California citizenship.

I haven’t been to my county’s fair this year.

The Los Angeles County Fair can be an ordeal. It is an event as sprawling and vast as L.A. itself, and parking is $15. The county insists on holding the fair in September, when the Pomona fairgrounds can feel like the hottest place on earth, and I feel a surge of competing life responsibilities.

But I feel I must go, before the fair closes this …