Don't remember fair ever moving

This is in regard to a letter headlined "Change needed at county fair" by Dave Paschall. In this letter he writes, "The fairgrounds has moved once in recent history due to growth."

OK, my family has lived here since 1952. My parents took me to the very first Yuma County Fair. I remember my parents loved to play the "horse race game" and I also had my first cotton candy there. My parents wanted me to try it but the lady had sold out and had to make a special batch for me. I did not like it and I remember feeling bad that the lady made the special batch and that my parents were so certain I would love it... and I didn't like it at all.

The point of this is that from that very first fair down to this year's fair, I do not know of any other place the fairgrounds have been, ever, in the history of the fair.  Of course my memory may be faulty but I do know that the fairgrounds was there for sure in the early 1970s.

Now, I do know the rodeo grounds moved. They used to be on 16th Street west of Arizona Avenue in the area of where the Motel 6 and Wendy's are today. I don't know when this happened as I was either in college or teaching in Gila Bend or Winslow at the time.

Also I know the baseball field "Where the Stars of Tomorrow Play Today" moved. That is where my parents took me to my first baseball game and later to hear Sen. Barry Goldwater talk about the Russian missiles in Cuba. It was on the north side of 16th Street, west of 1st Avenue. The circus was there, too. I can remember my father taking me down ever year to watch them put up the Big Top.

But the county fair has always been where it is now. It is possible that there was a county fair before the one I attended as a child but memory serves that the fair I first attended was the very first county fair. I could be wrong though, I frequently am. At any rate, it hasn't moved since the mid-1950s.

RICHARD L. MOORE
Yuma