Hundreds of families turned out Saturday for the final day of the Muskogee Regional Fair.

Amidst the blaring disco music, punctuated by shattered screams, young and old alike were laughing together.

Fairgoers enjoyed warm, breezy weather and easily avoided the few lingering puddles from Friday night’s rain.

Muskogee resident Adrian Alexander brought two nieces and a nephew to enjoy the rides. He leaned on a fence and watched the kids slide down a 50-foot slide on large burlap sacks. One niece, 6-year-old Jayla Scott, hopped off, grinned, and asked to go again.

“I’m just having fun watching them having fun,” he said.

Alexander attends every year and said he prefers to come at night.

“It’s so much more fun when it’s all lit up,” he said.

He then joined the children on the Avalanche, a spinning, lifting, ride that seemed to attract the longest lines.

Among the Avalanche fans were Zac Dillon and his brother Bradley.

Zac loves the rides, and Bradley loves the food. “I like the foot-long corndogs,” he said “Or were they inch-long?” Bradley asked his mother.



Click here for a photo gallery of the 2008 Muskogee Regional Fair.



Two children played catch with a giant inflatable basketball they won at the shoot-out game while others ducked under the bouncing ball as they ran by. Whole families ran by hand-in-hand, laughing and pointing at all the exhibits, rides and games. One little guy staggered off the Tornado, a little green in the cheeks and with his hand over his mouth, quickly recovered, and begged to go on the spinning chair ride again.

Steven Henderson of Muskogee operated the Funhouse. He works for the fair every year and said this was a particularly good one.

“This was a lot busier than last year,” he said. “But there wasn’t any crime or fighting either.”

He is happy to see the last day come, but not looking forward to tearing down the rides.

A visiting Canadian boy came off the Zipper with a smile on his face. His aunt, Heidi Thoden of Tahlequah, said McCallum Ching and his sister are visiting her for a few days.

“I love the Zipper,” Ching said. “Because you go everywhere and flip backwards and forwards.”

He said he’s seen much smaller fairs than this back home and thought Muskogee’s was great.

Late in the afternoon, groups of young people with big belt buckles and cowboy hats showed up for the rides before “The Rides”- bull riding.

The petting zoo seethed with children spilling grain and parents snapping pictures. A feisty goat tried to pull a man’s car keys out of his back pocket while another butted the fence.

Other families lined up for corndogs and funnel cakes or waited to ride the Ferris wheel.

Lacy Parks took advantage of some of the games that included balloon popping, duck hunting, the ring toss, and fishing. Among the prizes available were everything from tiny Christmas stockings to gigantic stuffed animals. Parks said they won their prizes, including inflatable hammers and stuffed Chihuahuas, at the basketball throw and fishing games. However, she wasn’t riding the Ferris wheel with her two children, 9 and 4.

“I brought reinforcement,” she said. “Their godmother is riding with them.”

This is the family’s second year attending the fair in Muskogee.

“We’ve had a great time,” Parks said. “The stuff is little enough that the kids can ride it all.”