Centre County Grange Fair in Pennsylvania--A Family Tradition

Last year I drove my three-year-old almost three hours to the Centre County Grange Fair, to sleep in a green canvas tent on asphalt (well, we did use an air mattress for padding), to keep up a tradition that has spanned several generations in my family. Started over 130 years ago, Grange Fair is the last of the true "tenting" fairs. Tents are prized possessions, passed down to family members. Currently, the camping population consists of 950 tents and 1300 RV's.

If you haven't grown up attending the Grange Fair, you will just shake your head in amazement as you watch the crowds on "moving in" day, the day before the fair begins. People bring full beds with headboards, refrigerators, bunk beds, televisions (with satellite dishes), tables and chairs, and carpeting-all to make their tents more "homey" for the week they will spend at the fair. Sometime during the week there is an annual tent decorating contest.

I began attending the fair as a child at my grandparent's tent, and the memories are many. My favorite ones include riding the rides on Kiddies' Day (when they are half-price), walking around with friends and cousins, sneaking out or back into our tents past curfew, using the smelly outhouses (yes, they just added flush toilets a few years ago!), eating Gross's French fries, and playing at the playground situated in the middle of the fair.

Some things about the Fair will probably never change: the sound of rain dropping on your tent at night, the taste of a cold sno-cone, the annoying voice giving the announcements over the loudspeaker in the mornings, and the smell of the animal barns. Progress has come to the Grange Fair in the way of pay showers, flush toilets, RV camping, internet access, and newer playground equipment.

Should you decide to visit Centre Hall, PA (not far from Penn State University), and experience Grange Fair for yourself, tickets will cost you $3.00 per vehicle to park and $5.00 per person to enter. Children enter for free on Kiddies' Day, the Monday of the fair. Most likely as a visitor, you will not understand why people keep coming back yearly, and why anyone would want to camp at a county fair for an entire week.

The locals can only explain it as an endearing family tradition. Some have been entering their canned goods or livestock in the fair for years. Others have tented for generations and enjoy visiting with relatives in the evening under the tent canopy while eating an ice cream cone. Centre County Grange Fair is not about being the "biggest" and "best", but about taking you back to a time when life was a lot simpler. I hope I can continue the tradition with my children.