This is Part Four of my
In fact, I was a hippie chick!
For my good friend Maw who had no idea that I had been a hippie chick. Read below for Parts One, Two, and Three.
main stage
The Oregon Country Fair is one of my favorite memories of the time I spent in Eugene. OCF is about as hippie as you can get ... well, maybe a Rainbow Gathering is more so.
hippie chick friends -- Jessica, Karen, Alicia
I attended the Fair for 6 years in a row (1987-1992). It always takes place the 1st weekend of July. However, because my boyfriend at the time, Dave was part of the construction crew for setting the Fair up, the OCF was always a 6 week adventure, starting in early June. Dave would leave then and camp out for the month before the fair and I would come out as often as possible to visit and stay over. The best part was that they would build the sauna booth early on and we'd have late night saunas with camp fires and lots of instruments being played.
me and Al
Yes, it's another topless pic. The fair would always draw lots of locals who wouldn't normally partake in such an event except that they wanted to see all of the hippie chicks baring their tits. We were so much in our own world that we hardly noticed. Not to mention that often times we'd spend the majority of the daytime (when it was open to the public) in our camps away from it all. One of the great perks of having a partner who worked for the Fair was that they would get an extra camping pass!
Al, John, and Peter
The best part of the fair really happens after hours when the general public goes home and it becomes open to one big huge family of Fair folk. On Saturday nights, there would be performances all night long on the Main Stage so that the folks running booths all day were able to see some of the amazing artists featured. The best included the Flying Karamazov Brothers, Baby Gramps and Artis The Spoonman.
Jeffrey, his partner, and their baby
Other highlights of night time activity included the sauna -- we LOVED the sauna! -- and the cheesecake booth! Writing about all of this is making me think that this might be my year of return.
Nani and Al
Phil and Tree (Tree is pregnant with Acacia)
Fair festivities
children's xylophone band
Nani and Monica
Nani and me
group shot
our camp -- Dave's van is the white one
pre-Fair work
