OREGON COUNTRY FAIR 2012
The Sad Saga of Sammy
GOING FROM LOST TO FOUND AT THE OREGON COUNTRY FAIR
S
ome people go to the Oregon Country Fair to
lose their inhibitions, their worries, their minds
or all of the above; more often than not, though,
they just end up losing their cell phones.
“Smart phones have memories,” a Samsung
LG phone recently lost at the Country Fair tells
me. “No pun intended,” the phone jokes,
flicking an ash from his cigarette into the street where we
are talking.
“You should call me Sammy,” I’m informed. Sammy is
serving out 30 days in the lost and found at the Country
Fair’s HQ at 4th and Lawrence. “I’ve got 30 days,” he says,
“‘after that, if I’m not claimed, I’ll get donated somewhere.”
I ask Sammy how he came to be lost. “I drove down from
Portland with my owner and her best friend,” he says. “She’s
just finished her first year at Reed College. She’d heard a lot
about the Fair and decided to come and check it out.”
After finally getting through the gates, Sammy and the
girls roamed the fairgrounds, with Sammy snapping photos
of the craft booths, bellydancers and this one dude dressed
like a garden gnome “Man, that guy was a trip,” Sammy says,
lighting up another Camel Light before he continues his tale.
Soon the trio grabbed some dumplings at Ma Ma’s, Mo
Mo’s, and then headed over Kesey Stage to catch Eugene
band the Conjugal Visitors.
And this is when everything started to go wrong — at
least for Sammy.
Cell phones, cameras and coats are the most common
personal effects turned in by Good Samaritans at the
Oregon Country Fair. You can turn in found items at any of
the Fair’s information booths, after which the lost belongings
BY WILLIAM KENNEDY
will be transferred by 6 pm to Lost
and Found Central at Odyssey.
And, yes, sometimes even dru … ms
(I’ll bet that’s not what you thought I was
going to say; the OFC, by the way, is
officially an alcohol-and-drug-free event).
Anyway, back to smokin’ Sammy the displaced cell
phone.
“Owner and her friend met a couple guys who
drive up every year from Santa Cruz,” he recalls.
“They really hit it off and the four of them started
dancing. At one point, Owner pulled off her sweatshirt;
I was in the pocket. After she finished dancing and picked
up her sweatshirt, I fell out. Nobody noticed.
“The boys said something about sticking around and
hitting some of those legendary after-hours parties,”
Sammy explains. “And the rest, as they say, is history.” He
heaves a rueful sigh. “Some family wearing fanny packs
and tie dye turned me in,” Sammy concludes.
If you happen to misplace something at the Oregon
Country Fair, report the lost item at the Odyssey Information
booth; email lostandfound@oregoncountryfair.org or call
541-343-4298. If your item is recovered and turned it, OCF
staff will even ship it back to you (on your dime, of course).
“Yeah, it’s really a bummer I got lost,” says Sammy.
“We were all having such a good time. I mean, my guts
contain all of my owner’s contacts, music and photos. Now
those photos are never gonna get Facebooked.”
I reassure Sammy that there’s still time — that his owner
may yet come to claim him. He thanks me and then hops
back inside the OCF offices.
The Pro Turn Weird
FAMOUS FACES AT THE OREGON COUNTRY FAIR
S
orry folks, there’s actually no defi nitive evidence
suggesting that Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, to whom
the reversed title of this story can be credited, ever
made it to the Fair, but it didn’t take more than
three years — after the Fair’s beginnings in 1969
— for our annual psychedelic parade in Veneta to
start taking on other famous faces.
Carlos Castaneda, peyote proponent and author of The
Teachings of Don Juan, was reportedly a multiple attendee to
the abstruse happenings of the Fair in the early 1970s, but he
wasn’t the only icon to grace OCF grounds with his presence.
In 1972, a benefi t concert for the Kesey family creamery
BY ANDY VALENTINE
in Springfi eld was held off-season on OCF grounds, emceed
by Ken Kesey and Merry Prankster Ken Babbs. The outdoors
gig coincided with the fi lming of a movie for the Grateful
Dead. Unfortunately the fi lm was never released, but those
in attendance certainly got yet another wicked, late-set Dead
show under their belts. Apparently the creamery was in dire
straits back then, and without this particular show — with its
monster turnout at three bucks a head — it would probably
not be the Nancy’s Yogurt franchise we know and love today.
“The Grateful Dead said it was the stark-nakedest scene
they’d ever attended,” Chuck Kesey says of his then-not-so-
well-to-do Creamery.
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So have fun at Country Fair 2012, and don’t lose your
stuff; in fact, it’s not a bad idea to tag your gear with some
form of personal identification. If you do happen to lose
something, despair not: The Fair folks will do their best to
reunite you with your possession.
Don’t wind up like Sammy: You want those cool photos
of the Oregon Country Fair up on Facebook ASAP.
ew
That may have been OCF’s fi nest hour, in all reality, but
that doesn’t mean such events could never again be possi-
ble; they’re just highly unlikely. The early ‘70s were simply
a different time, and maybe we’ll never get the chance to see
Grace Slick, leading lady of Jefferson Airplane, dancing in
a pseudo-conga line of hemp-clad hippies with a head full
of acid, as she supposedly did during one of her visits. And
perhaps we won’t get a chance to meet Bob Dylan or John
Lennon (who only supposedly dropped by, but fuck it, we
think it’s a cool piece of lore).
At the end of the day, famous people and iconic moments
only serve to strengthen the Country Fair’s feel: equal, open
and humane, no matter how many records you’ve released,
what movies you’ve starred in or how many books you’ve
published.
At the Country Fair, you’re a human being, and that’s
how you’ll be treated. As Castaneda used to say, “I like to
walk the fair to be with humanity again.”
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EUGENE WEEKLY JULY 12, 2012 17