Families rule on kids day

No one knows how it got started, but students love the annual day off from school to attend the fair

By MELANIE AVE, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 9, 2002

TAMPA -- Nine-year-old Melissa Posey grabbed a handful of sliced carrots and opened her palm to feed a half-dozen wooly and hungry sheep. Next to her, 3-year-old Taylor Gingold wasn't so brave.

The youngster preferred to toss the vegetables at the caged animals who were shoving their black noses at the children inside the barnyard.

"Look at their teeth," Taylor said, backing away from sheep that stood inches taller than her at the Florida State Fairgrounds.

Little people like Melissa and Taylor ruled the second day of the 98th annual state fair on Friday as part of students day at the fair. Under a brilliant blue sky, thousands of children screamed from Ferris wheels, munched on funnel cakes, petted flop-eared rabbits -- and didn't have to be in school.

Young Middle School eighth-grader Elizabeth Hoskins, 14, curled her nose at the smell of cows inside the livestock barn. Outside on the midway, Crestwood Elementary 10-year-old Mario Betancourt was all smiles after spinning airborne on the Cliff Hanger.

"It felt kind of like flying," he said, ready for the next ride.

In an odd, almost rural tradition, all Hillsborough County schoolchildren, except those in the Plant City area, get the day off for the fair. (Students in the Plant City area will get March 4 off so they can attend the annual Strawberry Festival there.)

For years until the late 1980s, Hillsborough students had a day off for the mock pirate invasion Gasparilla instead of the fair. No one seems to remember when or why local students originally began getting the day off for the fair, but School Board member Glenn Barrington said it's been that way for a "long, long time."

"If I'm not mistaken, we had the day off when I was in school," said Barrington, 78. "It's just always been that way."

The day was a hit for students like Sarah Toney, 14, and her friends, who waited to ride the Flight to Mars.

"We need a day to relax," said the Washington Middle School student. "We just had a long series of tests at our school and we needed a break."

Many parents said they appreciate having a weekday to spend with other families at the fair, away from the more crowded, rowdier atmosphere of the weekends.

But Nona Boblitt questioned the break from academics as her Clair Mel Elementary 10-year-old, Traci, yelled "Hi Mommy! Hi Mommy!" aboard the Crazy Bus, which was holding her 20 feet in the air.

"I think it's kind of silly," said Boblitt, who took her five kids to the fair. "But as a kid, I would have loved it."

Parent Lola Betancourt, Mario's mother, valued the time with her husband and two children just having fun.

"It's family time," the Tampa woman said. "Unlike the weekends, now it's calm and you don't have to worry about being pushed around."

Andy and Nancy Anderson of Tampa used the fair as an educational tool to show their 12-year-old son Andrew a slice of life he doesn't see every day.

"Kids need to see a tractor, cows, goats and chickens," said Anderson, a 44-year-old missionary. "This is America right here."

- Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report. Melanie Ave can be reached at 226-3400 or melanie@sptimes.com.

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