Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Fair Park



Headache quite a bit better - thanks. Just a dull throb now. I can live with that.

Anyways, since I didn't get a lot of pictures of the festival - I did manage to get a couple of shots of the Centennial Building (which housed half of the festival - the other half was in the Automobile Building - the area in between the two buildings usually has water in it). The Texas State Fair was built during the Great Depression by men participating in the WPA (Work Progress Adminstration - I think) which, for those of you who may not know, was a program by the government where artist, builders, etc. were paid to build parks, highways and other public works. The architecture was in the Art Deco style with huge murals and statues adorning the various buildings. It was finished in 1936 for the centennial of Texas Independence and FDR cut the ribbon. Over the years many of the murals were painted over because they were considered too risque for decent people to see and others just deteriorated. (couldn't have those art deco women with naked breast showing - give me a break) In the last 5 - 10 years they have been painstakingly restored to their former glory. You can see part of one in the picture of the bagpipes. I haven't had a chance to see all of the restoration - I don't get to the fair often, but I've seen pictures of them and it's pretty awesome. Sorry about the light poles, but they wouldn't move out of my way. When I used to go to the fair as a teenager the colors behind the statue to the right were no where that vivid, nor were they anywhere else on the building. Now, if only the fair itself didn't take place while the weather was hot. Even though we had a decent day - it still got a little warm in one of the buildings and I had to use the inhaler once. And the weather is hotter and muggier during the fair. Anway, Fair Park is a quite decent place to visit - aquarium, Science Museum, Museum of Natural History, etc. These buildings are open year round. It was at the Fair Park music hall that I got to see Yul Brynner in "The King and I" and Richard Burton in "Camelot" (not to mention John Schneider in "Brigadoon" - still a cutie). I have a lot of memories of the fair as a teenager - but I haven't been in over 10 years, and it was probably a good 15 years before that the last time I attended. Some people are fanatics about it and attend every year, driving from various parts of Texas. Not me - unless you were to have Hugh Jackman there ...

21 comments:

Lis said...

Neat! Great pictures. :o)
Glad to hear your headache's better, those can be a very ugly thing to have.

Unknown said...

So glad you're feeling better.
Maybe Hugh Jackman will get there next year.

Diane said...

Glad you're feeling better. :o)

Bailey Stewart said...

Much better - thank you. Spring has arrived early here - let the suffering begin. But I did get caught up on a lot of back tapes of my shows.

Mom has her semi-annual doctor's appointment this morning - fun. New place, so I'm a bit anxious about finding it. I know about as much as the maps can tell me - it's those little details like what business is on the corner, what other landmarks do I watch out for, etc that throw me off. Yikes - not good for an agoraphobic. We'll make it - just driving with mom makes me nervous anyway (and I can't smoke to ease the stress!)

Scott said...

Glad to see you are back and feeling better. Are you following free agency? It think it begins today.

Bailey Stewart said...

Scott - Hadn't paid that much attention. I tend to let the sports pages pass me by in the off-season. I'll have to look.

Toni Anderson said...

Glad you're feeling better. Nice building :)

Anonymous said...

I love the pictures! Those WPA guys did some amazing work across the country. :)

Joely Sue Burkhart said...

Glad you're feeling better--good luck finding the new clinic/office for your mom!!

I've never been to the fair, not even the smaller one held in this area. I'm not big on crowds, especially in muggy miserable August. Ugh. If temps and head index are under 100 it's "unseasonable" around here.

Christa said...

Hey Eve
Glad you're a little better, enough to tolerate the headache. Yup spring is here. All the garden shows are happening this month. I'm going up to my sister's in Mississauga the week of March 17 for the Mississauga Garden show. I told her as long as it wasn't Canada Blooms because I just find that it is too big and crowded. Plus a lot of pisplays I couldn't get into with the walker.
I hate going somewhere where I don't know. I had a job interveiw one time that gave me an address somewhere on Lakeshore Rd. West. I drove up and down Lakeshore Rd. 4 times before finally phoning them to find out where they were located and was told that it was on the opposite side of the canal on the other side of Port Dalhousie(and no where near the orginal Lakeshore Rd)Luckily I left early to get to the interview. Hopefully driving with your mom to the doctors won't make the headache worse.

Anonymous said...

I'm so happy your feeling better! Great pictures but how dare they put light poles in the way. Maybe we can get Hugh Jackman to get them moved!LOL

Denise McDonald said...

must have been something in the air - I started w/ a horrible headache Sat and then Monday... sheesh -

glad you're feeling better

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear the headache is better. Did you lie low? Or did your mom have you up and down. I must have somehow missed your comment. It was so small that I always just saw the picture of the festival. Sorry. Hope the nasty headache actually stays away. I was pretty much like that on Sunday. Somebody knocked on my door but I didn't even get up to see who it was.

I like the Fair Park. Thanks for telling us about it. It's good that they are restoring it. I guess Europeans, since the old Greek statues, have been blase about nudity. Maybe that also cuts down a little on the titillation factor in seeing nude people. The same with alcohol. You can get it at any neighborhood store and children will have small amounts of alcohol for special meals. I think sometimes that the fact that it's forbidden for so long here is one of the factors that makes it such a huge deal when kids are actually allowed to drink. Then they go overboard into getting drunk.

Actually, Hitler of not-fond-at-all-fond memory, got Germans to build Autobahns and things like that to make work for the many people who were out of work during the Depression in Germany. Later he used them for quick transportation of troops and material. When you consider how few people had cars at that time, it makes you wonder how people felt about the huge highways then. Good and bad things were built out of a need to let people work. Of course, now the Autobahn is a blessing--mostly.

Anonymous said...

Christa, I didn't know you use a walker too. It is a pain for anywhere that you have to use stairs that's for sure. Where exactly do you live? London, ON, I'm glad to say, has a number of stairless "kneeling" buses now. You can actually get on a bus with a walker, wheelchair or motorized chair without too much trouble. However, that's only some routes. For others, there are only regular buses but I think they'll slowly be replacing those.

Anonymous said...

ewh...history lesson! ugh! :) just kidding!!! You are just full of amazing tidbits aren't you :)

I am glad you are feeling better though...you did NOT send it my way did you...I am getting quite the headache this morning!!! UGH!

Good pics are they "yours"?? :)

I know taking your mom to the doctor is going to be hard for you...just take it easy :)

Oh and have you read Up all night? The heroine is an agoraphobic...I am about half way through it...very tasty :)

Bailey Stewart said...

Wow, go to the doctor and the troops move in :)

Trip was uneventful, although I did have a hard time finding the parking lot. You see, she said pull in and around to the back of the building - I did and only physician parking. Then I saw that there was another building back there and she had meant behind that building - sheesh. Other than that, it was easy to find. Getting out was difficult - the exit was on a busy road with no light, so I ended up going up the access road (what had been the original road) to almost where the old office was in order to get to a light. I will not turn left across traffic without a light. But this office was much better for mom's walker - the other had a rough surface drive that caught on her wheels - this was smooth.

Christa - you almost have it - driving with mother can give me a headache - but luckily this time it was fine. Now I have to go back out to the store when all I really want to do is go take a nap.

Susan - I'm sure Hugh would have moved those lights for me. :)

Dennie - yes, it's this dad-gum early spring and the breeze at the festival - trees are in bloom. The sinus pressure is much better today also.

Ruby - I meant to sleep, but mom's church called and the ladies wanted to come over and visit mother (right in the middle of the day) so I couldn't sleep all day (unconscious is the best way to deal with this kind of headache) but did manage a nap in the afternoon. I just laid on the bed and got caught up on my TV tapes - with the Olympics and such I had gotten behind on watching my shows.

Glenice - you are sooo funny - NOT. Yes those are my pictures taken with my digital camera, thank you very much!

Okay - off for the store - and then maybe a little nap before supper.

Christa said...

Ruby
I'm in St. Catharines. Most of the time I'm ok with stairs as long as I have something to hold onto. If I'm walking longer distances I use the walker like if I'm grocery shopping or going to the store.

Anonymous said...

Just checking :) I know how you like to "steal" pictures :) hee hee!!!!

Bailey Stewart said...

Glenice - Brat!

Brandy said...

What a wonderful part of History. And it's great that you gt to see all of those men perform. Maybe Hugh Jackman will take up as star of film and stage!

Melissa Amateis said...

Oooh! You got to see YUL BRYNER??? Wow. I LOVE him. Funny...I just realized that I have not taken anything for a headache in the last four days. Could moving out of the house be the reason??? ;-)

Glad your headache is better! They are such a pain to deal with - literally!