Going to the Fair - Peanut Festival in Dothan

James Gilmer and his favorite ride at the fair

Do you remember going to the fair when you were a kid? I guess the first really big fair I every attended was the Peanut Festival in Dothan. When I was in high school (early 1950's) our band was invited to march in the Peanut Festival parade each year. The first time I went was in 1950 and I remember it was a very hot day. Mrs. Gladys Dorsey (wife of Claude Dorsey, one of the founders of Dorsey Trailers) rented a suite of rooms in the hotel downtown for the band to assemble and get ready for the parade, after traveling the 50 miles by bus from Elba that morning. We were probably the only band afforded this luxury, and maybe she did this since her grandson Pete was in the band.


The grand marshal of the parade was none other than the cowboy movie star, Johnny Mack Brown, who was from Dothan. He led the parade, riding on his horse (and I don't remember the name of his horse). I don't remember much else about the parade but do remember the good time we had. We didn't go to the midway since it was located away from downtown.


My first time to go to the midway was in the 1980's when we moved to N. Alabama and would spend week-ends at our cabin on our farm near Elba. Our son James loves to go to fairs and we have attended the Texas State Fair at Dallas for many years when we lived in Paris, TX, the Minnesota State Fair in St Paul, MN when we lived in MN, and the NC State Fair in Raleigh and Dixie Classic Fair in Winston-Salem, NC. Then in Albany, GA I participated in the Dougherty Co. Fair since I worked part-time with the GA Cooperative Extension Service. It was always late November and most of the time the weather was very cold. James wanted to go every day since I usually had to be there most every day.


All these years, James would ride only one thing - the merry-go-round. He likes to climb up on one of the fancy decorated horses and pretend he is riding a horse. For two weeks he has been talking about going to the fair and check out the rides. Today we went to the fair and he got his wish - riding a horse on the Carosel. 


One of us always has to ride with him to help him get on the horse and then to get off. We went to the fair at 2 pm today. It was senior day and the gates opened at 12 for senior citizens to go - free. Not much going on before 4 pm; exhibit buildings were open and a few of the food vendors were cooking hot dogs, elephant 
ears, roasted corn, etc.


We walked around until James got tired and we hopped on a wagon being pulled by a tractor that was escorting elderly people around. We told them James was tired and they let us ride to the arena where there was a program going on for seniors. We walked inside and looked around and listened as they called out numbers for door prizes. We soon left there and headed for the midway at 3:30 pm. The rides didn't start up until 4 pm. We checked them all out and bought tickets for James to ride the Carosel. He was at the head of the line (only person in line at 4) and got his wish - to ride a horse on the carosel. Then he was ready to go home after that. Jim commented that it was an expensive ride! Driving 50 miles to Dothan and spending $3 for about a 3 minute ride. But James was so happy and will talk about this for a long time. It takes so little to make him happy.


 Somehow the thrill of going to the fair just isn't the same as when you are young. And it's much more exciting to go at night when all the lights and music are on. I got my wish - some good peanuts to snack on. I guess this is the next best thing for James. His greatest wish is to go to Macy's Christmas Parade but we just can't work out the logistics for him to go due to his kidney failure and problems he has walking, having to go to the bathroom, fear of loud noises and he doesn't like crowds. So he is somewhat content to watch it on TV, but every year he says "I'm going to see the parade in person next year." Oh yes, the Peanut Festival Parade is coming up this Saturday and you can probably find us sitting along the sidewalk near First Baptist Church, downtown Dothan. He has his favorite place to watch the parade. We can talk him out of going only if it's bad weather.