BJ Blanchard: Glen Ellen Fair draws a grateful crowd

This year’s Glen Ellen Village Fair was different somehow. There was a sense that we’d all been through something together.|

This year’s Glen Ellen Village Fair was different somehow. There was a sense that we’d all been through something together. Overheard was “You get your permit yet?” “How far along is your building?”... that kind of thing. Different from last year’s overhead conversations: “Boy that’s a nasty east wind,” “man, its super-hot today.” And bam, that night, everybody’s lives changed in one way or another just… like… that.

This year’s fair was different, and yet the same. The 8-minute parade from Carquinez to Jack London Ranch Road lurched along Arnold Drive as before. There was the Volkswagen Club, the Dunbar Dolphins, the Rotary Club, the Sonoma Valley High School marching band, and Neil Shepard’s fine wagon swan carrying Dunbar children in first-responder costumes representing our “town heroes” pulled by Neil’s giant Clydesdales rolling along to the cheers of the crowd. But when the fire equipment started coming - the Glen Ellen engine, Eldridge engine, Mayacamas engine, Cal Fire equipment and, finally, that colossal dozer that literally saved half the town - the crowd cheered and, frankly, a few tears were shed. There were many good people who jumped into action that night, but it was our hometown guys – who remembered the terrain from when they were kids wandering the hills, and remembered the patterns of the 1964 fire that came down off the Mayacamas, who took note of the wind direction and anticipated the course of the fire and blocked it – that we appreciate the most. The scars of the dozer treads remain on the path of the Regional Park today.

After the parade, the usual jumble of neighbors ambled along to enjoy Aunt Betty’s corn dogs. Yeti Restaurant served its garlic naan and rice from traditional Nepalese copper pots. Got Balls meatball truck served substantial meaty balls. The Glen Ellen Historical Society presented old photos and historical books, Sonoma Mountain Preservation Society promoted its environmental concerns. The Sonoma Ecology Center was represented with the Save Our Space group which is encouraging action around the transition of the Sonoma Developmental Center. The Glen Ellen firefighters booth provided beer. KSVY radio provided on-air accompaniment to the frivolity. A new group in town, the Jack London Yacht Club, offered memberships to its unusual group. The members are promoting a model boat race when the creeks are high in April, from the town bridge south to Jack London Village, which they are calling the “Jack to Jack race.” Sponsor a boat and the money goes to local charities.

The fair has roots in the 1880s when vacationers came up from the city by ferry to Sausalito, then by train, to camp on the creek banks and stay at the many resorts. Later in the 1960s, as Jim Berkland related, it was revived for several years as the Glen Ellen Country Fair featuring watermelon seed-spitting contests, blackberry pie-eating contests, poetry reading, and more, until rowdy motorcycle clubs – or inertia – caused it to fade away.

Subsequently, in 1990, in response to a controversy about what would go into the vacant lot at the corner where the Village Market is now and the Rustic Inn was, Margie Foster, Shari Glago and several members of the Glen Ellen Association came up with the idea of a revitalized Glen Ellen Fair, and were surprised when they actually got a permit to close the street.

Sunday’s event continues the tradition of this sweet fair for locals, by locals, and of locals, and continues to be a focal point of the community. And where else can you get a hug from your county Supervisor talking with the crowd, enjoying a corn dog alongside her neighbors and friends?

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