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Dizzy -- but happy -- at the fair
By BETH N. GRAY
BROOKSVILLE -- Round and round, over and up, facedown, face to the sky. The Zipper at the Hernando County Fair then reversed, as if to untie the knots it had woven in the tummies of its riders. Sirena Keehner, 13, and Ashley Wheaton, 12, tottered out of the barred and cushioned cage after two minutes in a topsy-turvy world Friday. The Spring Hill girls lurched for several steps. Scary? "Actually, it was quite fun," Sirena insisted . "They should have this more often," Ashley said with a gesture to the carnival rides, "because it's a blast." Sirena said, "We went to the state fair, but for a little fair (in Hernando), they have some mad, sweet rides." Ashley did advise against playing the games on the midway. "You can't win," she said. The blond pair spent $13 on the games, winning between them merely a cotton butterfly and a plastic toy sword. Deggeller Attractions of Palm City was earning lots of thumbs-ups Friday in its inaugural midway appearance at the fair, providing 29 rides, 22 games and many food concessions, from Italian and Polish sausages, onion blossoms and Greek-style gyros to ice cream, funnel cakes and fried dough. The rides are shiny. The game booths flutter with flags and pennants from their fuchsia, grape, hot pink and lemonade-colored tent tops. Flowering plants, step stones and pink plastic flamingos sprout from miniature landscapes around some of the food stands. "We try to be professional and have everything clean, everybody in uniform with ID cards," said Deggeller's concession manager, Dale Negus. "We're about everybody coming out here and having a good time." Deggeller has brought a staff of 150 workers and hired some locals as well to work food stands and games booths and to sell and take tickets. Deb Pedone, president of the Hernando County Fair Association, was thrilled with the midway, which was three times the size of recent midways at the fair. "He has done everything we asked for," Pedone said of Don Deggeller, who owns property in Hernando County, where the fair has floundered in recent years. "He's done more than his share. His staff is great." The previous carnival did not fulfill obligations in its contract, provide the number of rides promised, big rides or money for advertising, Pedone said. "We wanted clean, nice, neat, all the right stuff," she said. Deggeller was recommended by the Florida and International Federation of Fairs, and Pedone visited some of the company's midways before negotiating a three-year contract with Deggeller. On the midway, Tami Cannon of Inverness shouted, "Go, Tori; all right, Paige," as the 7-year-old and 6-year-old, respectively, bounced on the Gravity Storm, a bungee-like power-assisted trampoline in which the "rider" is harnessed and strung from elastic cords. The attraction operator, Cookie Clark, gave a pull on the girls' ankles to start their bouncing. "You got to make sure they're strapped in and having fun. Having fun, that's the main thing," Clark said. "Lots of fun" was Paige Cannon's assessment as she wavered somewhat unsteadily off the bouncing pillow. Tori Alford didn't quite get the hang of it and headed toward the Fire Ball. The Cannons, who just moved to Inverness two weeks ago from near Philadelphia, gushed over the midway. "The variety is awesome," said Tami Cannon, Paige's mother. Jacob Caraway, 3, of Brooksville took to Kelly's Pillow like a kid to a mattress: jump, jump, bottom drop. He bounced on the heels of Roseanna Hanshaw, 2, and Shelby Hanshaw, 3, of Brooksville. After 10 minutes of gravity-defying exercise, a flush-cheeked Roseanna dropped prone, admitting that she was ready for a nap. But Shelby announced: "I want to go on the cars." In addition to the new midway, Pedone said some 40 other individual vendors of food and attractions are newcomers to this year's fair, which runs through April 27. The only invited returnee is a strawberry shortcake stand. Opening night of the fair Thursday attracted more than 1,100 visitors, said a pleased Pedone.
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