The Phillips Free Fair

 

As far I can remember, the Phillips Free Fair happened every single year that I lived in Phillips, Texas, from from 1949 until 1963. It was an annual event that we all looked forward to and we had more fun there than tick on a cows utter. Here’s a small sampling of the story.

 

 

The Phillips Free Fair

 

When we lived in Phillips Texas, each year from when I was in the first grade through when I was in high school, Phillips held a Phillips Free Fair. It was set up on the Phillips Elementary school gravel parking lot. They brought in carnival rides, including a Ferris Wheel, a Tilt-A-Whirl, and a Merry Go Round, as I recall they had the fair in late July every year. They usually set the Ferris Wheel up near the fence to the Phillips Blackhawks Football field so you could see right over the top of the bleachers when you rode on it. The Tilt-A-Whirl was set up on the North side of the lot, and the Merry Go Round was close to the middle of the lot.

 

 

The carnival rides we all road 40 or 50 times over the span of the Phillips Free Fair.

 

 

 

There were soft drink stands, popcorn stands, watermelon stands, cotton candy stands, candied apple stands, snow cone stands, and several food stands so a lot of people spent the whole evening at the fair and had their supper there. All the kids including me loved going to the fair and most of us ate way too much junk when we went. Most of us walked to the fair every night and stayed as late as our parents would allow. They also had all of the typical game booths like toss the ring on the coke bottle, knock the pins down with a baseball, and burst the balloons with darts.

 

 

This is typical of a night scene at The Phillips Free Fair on a Weekend evening.

 

.
Every year they set up a dunk tank down close the elementary school gymnasium. The school principal, the school teachers, and the school coaches all rode the dunk tank seat at sometime during the fair. This was a popular event for the football players when the coaches rode the board, and for the school bad boys when the principal rode the board.

 

That may be my cousin Rick trying to dunk our sixth grade teacher.

.
The Lions club always set up a Bingo Tent on the south side of the parking lot next to the street that ran in front of the school. I tried this game a few times, but usually was too hyper to sit still too long at one time. The tent always seemed to be full at night however.

 

 

I think I see Brenda in the Bingo Tent getting ready to holler Bingo.

.
When I was about 12 years old, I entered 5 separate items into the fair competition. I entered a daffodil pastel drawing, a banana bread cake, an antique model car city display mounted on plywood, a live lily in a pot, and a stamp collection. I won first place on each item I had entered so I had a perfect record. My Mom did most of the work on each of the items, so she did well that year.

 

 

It was fun competing even if my Mom did do most of the work. I think I still have those five first place blue ribbons.

 

 

 

One year at the fair my mother entered their annual contest and won the grand prize which was an RCA Victor 45 rpm record player that stacked 10 records for continuous play, and a complete set of Glen Miller 45 rpm records. Does that put you “In The Mood?” I thought this was great at the time, but my sister, JerrylDine, claimed it and drove me crazy playing Elvis Presley 45 rpm records 10 at a time at night when I was trying to sleep.

 

 

My sister JerrylDine wore this thing out playing Elvis records which deprived me of a lot of sleep when I was a whipper snapper.
Thanks for reading The Phillips Free Fair,
Bill