Country Fair

Every year in the beginning of July a swarm of people gather in Veneta. I don't want to offend anyone so I won't describe this group of people as anything more than that, a swarm. Thousands and thousands of people from all over the country grather for the annual Country Fair. (I'll refrain here from calling it a hippy fest). With this massive group of people comes many, many problems that the Sheriff's Department is left to deal with. I did a ride-a-long with Cliff last year during the fair and knew I needed to make that an every year thing. I saw things I had never seen before. Women with no shirts on with painted kitty paws on their breasts (?), men wearing fairy wings, people painted green and the list goes on and on. Also, I can't believe the amount of people who keep their toddlers at this thing until 11 o'clock at night, especially with the "variety" of people that are there.

Back to the Sheriff's Office. Due to the fact that Cliff is the sergeant of the deputies who provide service to Creswell and Veneta, the Country Fair is his responsibility. Due to the large amount of deputies who work this event, we head to Costco the week before and pick up a ton of food from jerky to Gatorade to trail mix. And then, two days before, I start baking. This year I sent out over 300 cookies for the deputies who were working. And would you believe that they were all eaten in 3 days?! :0) Guess they were good.

Also during the Country Fair, the guys at the volunteer fire station in Veneta put on a BBQ for the deputies working so Cliff and the guys all go over there 2 nights of the fair. When I was riding a long, we stopped in for the best burgers ever made and Cliff got to drive the firetruck. Apparently he had made a comment to the Lt. (I think he was the lt.) about wanting to drive a firetruck and as soon as he saw Cliff this night, he gave him the keys and they went for a drive. I thought it would just be around the parking lot but they took it out for a nice drive. Cliff said it was funny to see the look on people's faces when they'd wave and then realize it was a Sheriff's Deputy driving. I bet they wish they could have taken back the wave. You know, everyone loves the firemen and they always wave. Generally the deputies get a wave too but there is only one finger lifted. Must be nice for those firemen. :0)