By the thousands, they came (Georgie Manuel)

There are those around my breakfast table that are saying “no more Nature stuff” so I finally got around to deciding what to do next but now I can’t decide what picture to send in. Solution: for the next month or so, I’ll be sending a picture a week of the Tri-Parish Fair.
I am fortunate to have inherited a box of pictures of the fair and can’t choose one over the other, so I’ll just keep sending them in weekly, ‘til I run out, dit comme Scarlett O’Hara.
The fair was held annually from the mid 1920’s through the early 1960’s. It was a co-operative effort on behalf of St. Landry, Acadia and Evangeline parishes. It was a showcase of the agricultural and commercial industries in this area of the state.
It also highlighted school accomplishments in the areas of farming, industrial arts and home economics. It was well attended by every student from every school in each of the three parishes.
The fair was the event of the year for many. Parades, animal competitions, school queen contests, high diving acts, car raffles, band concerts and rodeos.
Attendance went from 30,000 the first year to estimates, from tickets sales, of more than 50,000 later on.
We’ll try to include as much information on the fair as we can glean from old articles. And the pictures.
For starters, above is a picture of one of the signs we attached to our license plates, well in advance of the fair.

Georgie Manuel
September 29, 2013