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The Latke versus the Hamantasch

Sophisticated debates on a silly subject

The latke and the hamantasch, two traditional Jewish holiday foods, were also the unlikely subjects of debates held at the U-M Hillel Society in the 1960s and 1970s and then at the Jewish Community Center from 1988 to 1994.

"It was absolutely nothing serious," recalls participant Chuck Newman. Each dish had two defenders who would argue for the superiority of their chosen food, often citing evidence from their professions or specialties.

"Sophisticated people arguing in a sophisticated way on a silly subject" is how longtime moderator Carl Cohen, a U-M philosophy professor, describes the events.

The latke, a potato pancake, is often eaten at Hanukkah, a Jewish festival celebrated in December. Because it's cooked in oil, it's considered a symbol of the one day's supply of oil that miraculously kept a menorah burning for eight days after a Jewish army took Jerusalem back from the Syrians in 165 B.C.

The hamantasch, a three-sided pastry filled with prunes or poppy seeds, is eaten at Purim, which falls in February or March. It is meant to resemble the hat worn by Haman, who advised the Persian king Ahasuerus to destroy the Jews; his plot was thwarted by the queen, Esther, who was a Jew.

The idea of-the holiday debate originated at the University of Chicago and quickly spread to other campuses. Herman Jacobs, head of Hillel at the time, introduced it to Ann Arbor in the 1960s.

Cohen recalls that he chose participants for their "willingness to engage in whimsy—flights of fancy—and be downright silly." The debaters lived up to that mission. Computer scientist Bernie Galler remembers that the late James McConnell, psychologist and editor of the Worm Runners Digest, talked of the effects of feeding prunes to his rats. McConnell packed the audience with friends wearing T-shirts with a logo for his side; at an appropriate moment, they tore open their shirts to reveal the logos. The late Bennett Cohen, a professor of veterinary medicine, used slides of animals from his research, with altered captions, to show the allegedly dire effects of whichever food he was against.

Rabbi Robert Dobrusin used biblical arguments to show that the fruit involved in Adam and Eve's fall was really a potato. Rabbi Robert Levy took off his rabbinical robes to reveal a green doctor's coat and offered medical charts that, he claimed, proved hamantaschen were healthier. Surgeon Lazar Greenfield warned that humans have a "grease gland" that could be activated by eating too many latkes, and Lana Pollack, then a state senator, read a Michigan Senate resolution proclaiming that the latke was best.

Chuck Newman ran a negative campaign—"I juggled a latke, showing how it fell apart," he recalls. He also demonstrated how oily the latke was by putting one in a balloon and squeezing out the oil. "But I was faking, because it had oil in it already," he admits.

After a chance for rebuttal and questions from the audience, a vote was taken. The side that received the loudest applause won. The debaters and audience would then adjourn for refreshments—latkes and hamantaschen.

—Grace Shackman

ILLUSTRATION BY WENDY HARLESS

"Watch out! Here I come!"

When kids could sled down city streets all winter long

Sledding down the middle of city streets? No parents in their right mind would let their children do that today, but in the 1920s and 1930s it was done with the blessing of the city. Every neighborhood had at least one steep street blocked off for sledding, and often there were several within walking distance.

"Oh, it was fun, really fun," recalls Walter Metzger, who sledded on three such streets: Koch from Third to Main, Division from Packard to Hill, and Eighth from Washington to Liberty. "The city blocked the streets with a big long [saw] horse. They also blocked the side streets, but they'd leave room for the residents to drive through. It was very safe. I never remember anybody having an accident with a car."

Al Gallup, who sledded down Highland and Awixa, recalls that the city brought out a sawhorse at the beginning of the season and left it at the side of the road except when the kids were actually sledding. Hills on Broadway and Felch were popular spots. Bob Ryan, who lived on Longshore, used to sled from the top of his street clear down to Argo Pond and, if possible, right out onto the frozen water. "There was no traffic," he recalls. "The only house was Mr. Saunders's of the canoe livery, and he knew to be careful [when driving]."

If there were no sawhorses, one of the kids would stand guard at potentially dangerous intersections, warning sledders when they needed to stop. Braking was done by dragging feet, swerving onto lawns, or, if all else failed, jumping off just before a collision. Harlan Otto, who used to slide down Koch Street, remembers they didn't necessarily stop even at Main. "We'd have someone at the bottom [of Koch] to look out. One time we went down and around the comer on Main all the way to Madison."

Flexible Flyers were the sleds of choice because "you could steer them," explains Coleman Jewett. "Others you had to lean on to guide." Brad Stevens recalls that Flexible Flyers came in different lengths: "The longer it was, the more prestigious." John Hathaway recalls that his Flexible Flyer (which he still has hanging in his garage) was purchased at Hertler's, and that as a special deal the Hertler brothers cut him a piece of rope to tie on the front.

"Not many had sleds," recalls Otto, so "we used to ride double. The bigger kids would get on the bottom and the little on top." Kids sometimes went down a hill on a number of sleds chained together, sticking their toes between the opening where the sled was steered. Occasional mishaps occurred, but the victims all lived to tell the tale.

Larger groups of kids rode on toboggans and bobsleds, the latter often homemade. Hathaway recalls that the bobsleds went a lot faster and could be dangerous if you left a limb dangling. Jewett says that a family in his neighborhood, the Bakers, had a toboggan that held twelve or fourteen kids. "It was fun. Just don't sit in front or back," he warns.

Sometimes kids would enhance their sledding routes by pouring water in the tracks. Metzger recalls that "Bob Muehlig used to take buckets of water and pour it on the curb to make runs for a bobsled." Ryan remembers pouring water on Longshore in new snow so toboggan tracks would freeze at night. "We'd go like the gun the next morning," he recalls.

The kids would come home sopping wet after sledding. "We all had coal furnaces with registers on the floor. We'd take off our clothes to dry off," Metzger recalls. "The adults hated the cold and snow, but kids loved it," says Jewett. That part is probably the same today.

—Grace Shackman

Photo Caption: John Hathaway still has the Flexible Flyer his parents bought at Hertler's.

Building the County Parks

How a political gambit led the way

It is hard to imagine now just how rare parks were in Washtenaw County in 1972. Ann Arbor and other big towns had their own parks, and there were the Metroparks on the river and the state recreation areas at the northwest edge of the county. But the county’s only parks were a few rest areas run by the Washtenaw County Road Commission. Former road commission employee Carl Thayer remembers there wasn’t much to them—just “hand-mowed areas right beside the road with a picnic table and a green trash barrel.”

Things began to change in 1972, when Meri Lou Murray ran for county commissioner—by default. As Third Ward chair for the Ann Arbor Democratic Party, Murray was responsible for finding a candidate for her county board district. But since that district was then considered a Republican stronghold, no Democrat wanted to run. The party told Murray she would have to fill the slot herself.

Figuring they had nothing to lose, she and her campaign committee decided to think big—and came up with the idea of advocating for a county park system.

Murray won in an upset victory that fall and went on to shepherd into existence a county parks department that now has twenty-seven facilities on about 3,400 acres. The county system has thirty-three full-time employees, more than 300 seasonal jobs, and an annual budget that ranges from $6 million to $8 million depending on whether the system is buying land that year. And it’s long since expanded from rural parks to include active-recreation facilities and protected natural areas.

The Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission held its first meeting in August 1973. Initially, all it oversaw was four roadside parks inherited from the road commission. But things began to pick up the following August, when WCPARC hired its first director, Bob Gamble.

Parks commissioner Nelson Meade recalls that the search had come down to two finalists, but one took a job in a bigger community, and the other hesitated to come to a county with no park millage to fund its system. Then, toward the end of the process, Gamble applied.

After reading his resume, which included being director of parks in Nassau County, Long Island, Meade wrote Gamble to say, “You’re out of our league. We can’t afford you.” But Gamble explained that his needs were modest and that he had lost the Nassau County job when the people who hired him were voted out of office. Although employed elsewhere, he was anxious to get back into park work. Meade recalls that at an interview in the county planning department’s conference room, “Bob lolled in his chair, but he charmed us. We hired him instantly.”

The commission still had virtually no budget, but one of the roadside parks, Park Lyndon, was surrounded by 205 undeveloped acres that the state had given to the county in 1960. Gamble got a federal grant to build a parking lot, a picnic pavilion, toilets, and a small cabin, and he recruited federally funded job training employees to lay out trails. Park Lyndon is now one of the jewels of the park system—“one of the premier nature preserves east of the Mississippi,” according to current county parks head Bob Tetens.

Murray recalls that the commissioners themselves helped set up fitness trails, using equipment made by the job trainees in a hangar at the city airport. At the County Service Center at Washtenaw and Hogback, formerly a Roman Catholic seminary, they commandeered the old gym for exercise classes, ignoring the noise from the sheriff’s shooting range in the basement.

Parks commissioner Bob Marans, a U-M professor of architecture and urban planning, arranged for students to survey county residents on their priorities for the new park system. Preserving open space came out on top, followed by a swimming beach and a park in the eastern part of the county. Gamble recommended creating parks at Independence Lake in Webster Township and on a property south of Ypsilanti with a small pond—today’s Rolling Hills County Park.

In August 1976 the county asked voters for a quarter-mill, ten-year park tax. Gamble stayed up all night after the election waiting for the votes to come in. When the final tally was announced, the proposal was 349 votes short of approval. “Bob was devastated,” recalls Nelson Meade. But the very next night the parks commissioners asked the board of commissioners to put the millage back on the fall ballot. They were worried that if they waited two years until the next countywide election, the land would be lost to private developers.

The night of the fall 1976 election, Gamble was so confident he went to bed at his normal time. He awoke the next morning to find that the millage had passed by 5,000 votes. Environmentally minded voters may have turned out in especially large numbers that year because the state’s returnable-bottle law proposal was on the ballot—but the county parks never again lost a millage campaign.

With a steady source of revenue, WCPARC won federal matching grants to buy and develop Independence Lake and Rolling Hills. Murray herself securied another key parcel when, after years of lobbying, she convinced her fellow county commissioners to donate the former county poor farm on Washtenaw to the park system. It’s now County Farm Park.

Bob Gamble retired in 1980. His successor, Roger Shedlock, oversaw the opening of Rolling Hills in 1983, and the historic Parker Mill on Geddes the following year.

The original ten-year millage was due to run out in 1986, but the parks commissioners decided to put the renewal on the ballot in 1984. They were pleasantly surprised when it easily passed on the first try.

In 1985, Shedlock was succeeded by Fred Barkley, a former county and regional planner. In July 1988, Barkley went to a convention in Portland, Oregon, to receive an award for Parker Mill’s trail system. “One day, while walking by the Portland City Hall,” Barkley recalls, “I saw kids playing in water shooting up in a spray.” He decided to add “interactive sprays” at both Independence Lake and Rolling Hills. At Rolling Hills, Barkley also replaced the original swimming pond with an elaborate water park complete with a water slide and a wave pool. According to Barkley, it was Michigan’s first public water park.

By then, most of the original millage was being spent to maintain the existing parks. The commissioners realized that if they wanted to continue to buy land, they would need another millage, and in 1988 voters approved a second quarter mill. Renewals of both the original and new millages easily passed in 1994 and 1998. The county uses one for operations and the other for park acquisitions and major improvements.

An indoor recreation center opened at County Farm Park in 1990. Built in the shape of a barn to honor the site’s history, it includes a swimming pool, a gym, exercise equipment, a walking area, and space for fitness classes. When Meri Lou Murray retired from the county commission in 1996, it was renamed in her honor. The Meri Lou Murray Recreation Center is now the most-used facility in the entire county park system.

Barkley’s last big projects were the golf course on Pierce Lake near Chelsea, more improvements at Rolling Hills and Independence Lake, and the purchase of Sharon Mills County Park near Manchester. Most of these were finished by his successor, Bob Tetens, who took over in 2001. Like Barkley, Tetens is a former planner who exudes enthusiasm for the parks. He seems to carry a mental map of the county in his head: whenever a potential park site is mentioned, he knows its physical properties and whether it is for sale or might be in the future.

Built in the 1830s on the Raisin River, Sharon Mills had been a Ford parts plant, a home, an antique store, and a winery before WCPARC bought it. The county restored the mill building and added handicapped-accessible restrooms, a pergola, terraces, and a pavilion. Plans call for adding walking and mountain bike trails on 119 recently purchased acres across the road.

In 2001 voters approved a new quarter-mill tax to preserve natural areas. At the time the county had just one nature preserve; now there are fourteen, all of them accessible to the public. “People can’t appreciate or understand nature unless they can experience it,” says Tetens.

The other big project since Tetens arrived has been the effort to complete a

border-to-border nonmotorized trail throughout the county. Also called “linear parks,” such trails open large stretches of land to the public. But they also require close collaboration with units of governments, individual landowners, and other park systems. “Some [obstacles] are difficult, some are expensive, but none are insurmountable,” says Tetens. He predicts that when it’s finished, the B2B trail will garner national recognition.

This year the county parks are thirty-five years old. With its second millage up for renewal, WCPARC has again developed a master plan describing what it will do with the money. For instance, since research shows a need for more sports facilities, the commissioners are working on an expansion plan for Rolling Hills that would include more space for disc golf and soccer and a “miracle field” with a rubberized surface that is safer for handicapped children and seniors. Similar improvements are being planned for the other parks. Also on the drawing boards is another indoor recreation center.

Tetens is very excited about the system’s future. “More than any other land use, parks have the ability to transcend time,” he says. “I am confident that the parks and preserves developed today will still be serving the Washtenaw County citizens a hundred years in the future. Parks are forever."

History of the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair: 1960-1969

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"Snowballing into a Mushroom" By 1963 the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair had expanded from three days to four and presented 363 artists. Applications outnumbered available space. Booths acquired plastic roofing and lighting. They crept, like a colorful caterpillar down South University Avenue and around the corner on to East University. A children’s art fair joined the celebration. Only four years old, the fair had grown so large, the committee decided to limit the number of artists to 350; a jury system was put into place. At age six, the fair grew to three blocks, and Ann Arbor’s sister city, Tubingen, Germany, sent a display. There was art plus carnival rides, animal acts, music and five prototype Civil Defense shelters. The State Street Art Fair launched in 1968 presenting local artists on East Liberty Street. Quote In 1961 Esther Rainville stated proudly in the Ann Arbor News, “Some [university art] students made enough sales to pay their tuition for the fall term.” Quote Esther Rainville, speaking of the growth of the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, said, “Now we don’t contact 1000 artists, 1,500 of them contact us!” Weather Reports The report in 1966 said, “ Wednesday saw early morning rain then grey skies and black umbrellas. In 1969 there was a heat wave, showers and high humidity. Friday had a tornado warning with 1.17 inches of rain and high winds damaging artists’ booths. Bumps in the Road Ann Arbor’s newest and tallest (17 stories) apartment building was under construction on South University in the midst of the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair. The Forest Avenue parking structure offered FREE parking even though it was still under construction.

 

History of the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair: 1970-1979

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Blood, Sweat and Squatters
A third art fair, The Free Arts Festival, joined the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair and the State Street Art Fair to bring the count to three officially recognized Art Fairs in the city. In 1971 Ron Lutz started early recycling using discarded paper and cardboard as well as home-made paint in the children’s art area. A Blood, Sweat and Tears concert, sponsored by the Ann Arbor Ecology Center and ENACT, was held at Crisler Arena. In 1972, Main Street hosted the Downtown Photographic Fair. Finally, in 1974, portable toilets were set up and credit cards were used in artist’s booths. A great deal of effort went into trying to control unauthorized artists setting up independent booths causing congestion. In the early 70s, the directors of the fairs asked the mayor and city council to help regulate unauthorized exhibitors, peddlers and “squatters.” A Mayor’s Art Fair Committee was set up in response to the request in an effort to coordinate the three fairs. In 1975, Fair Marshals regulated pedestrian traffic and helped prevent unauthorized exhibitors and peddlers. Finally, in 1976, two ordinances were passed by city council to limit unauthorized sales of art on city streets. Shuttle bus service was implemented in 1976 in an effort to relieve parking problems. The Ann Arbor Transportation Authority ran service from Briarwood, Arborland and Pioneer High School to the Fairs; cost 25 cents.

The Graceful Arch
In 1977, the Graceful Arch, a canopy constructed by students in the Tensile Structure Studio at U of M’s College of Architecture, was introduced as a performance venue. Made of lightweight sailcloth, it covered 3,000 square feet with 5,000 square feet of fabric.

Weather Reports
On Tuesday afternoon in 1972 during set up, twenty booths were destroyed and another 75 damaged by wind gusts of up to 67 miles per hour. An enormous push was put on and all was repaired by 1:00 AM in time for the opening of the fair. Mother Nature made encore performances in 1978 and 1979 and offered “heat storms” in intervening years.

Bumps in the Road
Each year potholes are repaired in the streets of Ann 
Arbor prior to the Art Fairs except in 1979. There was a strike and holes were not fixed in time. Letters were sent to artists whose booths were going to have a problem in their display areas and told to bring boards to cover the potholes.

History of the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair: 1990-1999

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Number One Art Fair in the Country
In 1991, MCI and AT &T offered free phone calls to anywhere in the United States. In 1993, AIDS activists marched through the Ann Arbor Art Fairs Saturday afternoon. Then in 1997, photographer Harvey (Drouillard) took a picture of eight naked people atop the State Theater; art fair patrons didn’t notice. Ann Arbor News copy editor, Jack Gillard said in 1998 that Dorothy and Toto visited the Art Fair, but are trying to get “back to Oz where things are normal.” In 1999, the Fairs agreed to open one hour later and Mr. B graduated to a grand piano.

Logos
The three logos of the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, the Fish, the Graceful Arch, and the Funky Booth, all derived from the icons of the Fair. The current logo, the Funky Booth, came from the profile of the two-by-four and visqueen booths constructed each summer by the South University Merchants Association volunteers and high school students.

Weather Reports
Sunshine Artist Magazine named the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair the #1 art fair in the country and continues to rank it is the top five year after year. In 1991 the Ann Arbor News reported, “…the first time in memory that the four days [of Art Fair] passed without a drop of rain.” In 1994 the News said, “There was some rain everyday but Saturday, but still they came seeking art.” In 1995 the report was, “The weather outside may be hot, but the art is hotter.” Scattered thunderstorms Thursday and Saturday. In 1996, after almost a month of no rain, a torrent fell on opening day. 1997: Heat. Sluggish, oppressive heat. In 1998, Joy Hakanson Colby, Detroit News Art Critic said, “No amount of weather will quell enthusiasm for the most popular event of its kind.” Hot, humid, high of 90 degrees with a possibility of thunderstorms.. At the same time a headline in the Ludington Daily News read, “The Weather in Ann Arbor is Fair to Partly Crowded.” 1999 brought slow steady rain Wednesday, high damaging winds on Friday and 90+ degrees in between.

Bumps in the Road
In 1990, Sidewalk reconstruction projects fell behind schedule with the biggest problem on South University Avenue. In 1998, M-14, I-94 and US-12 had lane reductions and closures. It was a challenge getting in and out of Ann Arbor during the Fair. Then in 1999, there were 1,000 fewer parking slots as the Maynard and the South Fifth/East Washington structures underwent construction.

History of the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair: 2000-2009

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Meet Me at the Tower
In an effort to generate more revenue for its association, in 2001 the South University Area Merchants’ Association established a fourth art fair on Church Street just off South University. Improved communications were made possible in 2001 between all fairs and emergency authorities via hand-held radios. In 2003, the original Ann Arbor Street Art Fair moved from South University Avenue where it all began, to a more idyllic, less commercial North University Avenue site on Ingalls Mall surrounding the Burton Memorial Tower. “Meet Me at the Tower” became the watch word. Chris Roberts-Antieau became the Fair’s first featured artist. In 2004, the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair made the top 10 lists of American Style, Sunshine Arts magazines and the Art Fair SourceBook. New in 2005: volunteer-guided tours of the Street Art Fair. A casting call for the television hit reality show “Survivor” took place on the streets during the 2007 Street Art Fair. The Ann Arbor Street Art Fair is included in Patricia Schultz’ book 1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. and Canada Before You Die.

Photographer Harvey (Drouillard) gave a heads up in 2008, “Potbelly’s at noon on Friday.” Free wheel chairs were offered by local health care business in response to request for more accessibility . In 2009, Shary Brown announced her retirement as Executive Director of the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair.

Weather Reports
In 2007 the Art Fairs were evacuated in 7-10 minutes, when a tornado touched down north of Ann Arbor. With about 15 minutes warning by emergency crews and Fair staffs, artists were able to secure their art work. Everybody made new friends as they hunkered down in University of Michigan and business’ basements. The Art Fairs’ preparations for every eventuality paid off and kept all safe. A few booths were rolled around by high accompanying winds.

Bumps in the Road
In 2000, construction of the University’s School of Social Work, central campus renovations, temporary loss of the parking structure on Forest Avenue and the closing of M-14 from North Main west to I-94 all made getting to and around the fairs a challenge. US-23 closed for five minutes on Wednesday while electricians put up power lines across the road. However, construction at Plymouth and Green Roads was halted during the Fairs.

History of the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair: 1959-1960

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A Thousand Invitations
The idea of the fair was born in 1959 when Artisans owner, Bruce Henry, approached the Ann Arbor Art Association asking if it would put on an “arts and crafts market” in conjunction with the merchants’ Summer Bargain Days. The Art Association formed a planning committee. They wanted a show of quality and because the group wanted the effort to be educational, the Potters Guild and the Weavers Guild were asked to show and demonstrate their crafts. A thousand invitations were sent out to area artists. One hundred thirty-two responded.

On July 20, the committee, their families and friends, strung up wire between parking meters and roped off make-shift booths for 99 local artists and 33 other Michigan artists. Three tents dominated two blocks of South University Avenue. Artists hung their prints and paintings, pots were set down on the street. Even though University of Michigan professor of art and director of the Museum of Art, Jean Paul Slusser said, “No good artist will sit in the street.” they did; for three days. Bruce Henry donated Japanese paper fish which were hung from light poles to add a festive air. There was no entry fee for participating artists who, in total, earned $4,500. Down on Main Street the merchants hosted a used car auction.

First Street Art Fair Committee
Mrs. Fred Beaver, Mrs. Fred Coller, Mrs. Clan Crawford, Mrs. Harold Dorr, Mr. Bruce Henry, Mrs. Robert Horton, Mrs. Volney Jones, Mr. Milton Kemnitz, Mr. Cecil North, Mrs. George Piranian, Mrs. Earl Rainville, Mr. John Ransom, Mrs. G. Davis Sellards, and Mr. Robert Shipman. Many of the women on the committee went on to acquire first names and have identities of their own.

Bumps in the Road
Words written and repeated that first year, “Good art doesn’t belong on the street; it belongs in a museum.” and “…a scraggly little fair.”

History of the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair: 1980-1989

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Republicans Save Art Fair
A bus strike at the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority in 1980, curtailed shuttle service; police towed and impounded 369 cars. Mark “Mr. B” Braun began his art fair career as an impromptu (if hauling a piano down to the streets can be labeled “impromptu”) jam session. Shary Brown started the Art Fairies Parade tradition by donning gossamer wings and “blessing” the artists as the fair closed. In 1983, Michigan Governor, Jim Blanchard, presented the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair with an award for promoting tourism.

Weather Reports
Ann Arbor’s worst storm ever, struck during what should have been Art Fair week in 1980. However, because the Republican National Convention was slated for that week in Detroit, the Art Fairs were rescheduled for the following week. A disaster, although not averted, was lessened because of this change. Then in 1983, an Ann Arbor News headlined, “Summer Storm Can’t Wash Out Art Fairs,” and in 1987, “Heat!” and the following year, “Worst Drought in 50 Years.” Thunderstorm Friday afternoon and rain on Saturday.” End of drought. More heavy downpours in 1989.

Bumps in the Road
In 1982, repaving work on major arteries leading to and from the city were suspended during the fair!