A fair to remember

The Payne County fair entertained hundreds of residents from nearby towns this past Wednesday through Saturday.

People of all ages were guaranteed a good time for a decent price.

The fair was held at the Payne County Expo Center, 4518 Expo Circle East,  from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and had entertainment ranging from a ferris wheel to funnel cakes, games to a petting zoo.

The fair also gave proud animal handlers a chance to show their livestock.

Each night members of Future Farmers of America competed in contests.

Jana Stein and her husband travel to nearby fairs to showcase her and her husbands' two steers, Pistol and Pete.

Pistol and Pete are working steers and regularly participate in community parades.

Stein said she's proud her two beautiful steers and that her whole family refers to them as ‘the boys.'

But the fair isn't fun and games for everybody involved.

"There are 36 of us that live in a closet for seven months in order to bring you all joy," said Indy, a fair employee.

The fair travels between March and September each year Indy said that

he enjoys the freedom that comes with the job, but that it can be exhausting at times.

The cultural background of the fair staff may come as a surprise to many because 11 out of the

36 staff members are from South Africa. Many of them said that they enjoy working for the fair

because it gives them a chance to travel to various places around the United States, interact with

different types of people and enjoy the town they are in on their time off. Some of the

employees have gotten to experience the nightlife in Stillwater and have favored Dirty's Tavern most

nights they were here.

"We get to a town, give people a good time and then we are gone like the wind," Indy said. "We

can pack up our stuff so quickly; you wouldn't even know we were here."