Keeping with Tradition, The Fair and Football

[Alaskawildkat]

Here in Alaska the College Football Season is heralded by The Alaska State Fair. Here we are less than a week away from Northwestern's opening season game and once again the remind here is our annual Alaska State Fair. Ironically last year's absence of a State Fair accompanied the absence of an early season start for Northwestern Football.

As posted in years past this thread attempts to continue my traditional posting of Fair photos that signal the upcoming arrival of Northwestern Football.

While the early start of this year's fair precluded the availability of similar photos of Alaska's record sized cabbages, it was fitting that this year's publicity hook for the fair's opening day featured Northwestern Football's own alum Adam Crum as a unique to this year Vaccination Station was featured on the news broadcasts. So to start off the photo postings, here is my photo of the new "exhibit" followed by Adam (now serving as Alaska's Commissioner for health and social services) and fellow Alaskan NFL legend player/sportscaster Mark Schlereth as they promoted the COVID-19 Vaccination efforts:

And here is the message Adam shared with me in which he shared Mark's admiration for Coach Fitzgerald. (Before his NFL career Mark Schlereth had played his collegiate football at University of Idaho where Coach Fitzgerald had been the Line Backer and Special Teams Coach before returning to Northwestern.)

In keeping with past tradition , in a following post, I'll add some added photos I took at this year's Alaska State Fair.

 

[Alaskawildkat]

OK, the added photos, beginning with the adjacent to the Vaccination Station exhibit "Tundra" cartoonist, Chad Carpenter, as he (seated) greets a fair visitor at his booth.

Following are some of the vegetable exhibits, albeit with the early date fair opening, not of the monster size seen in prior year postings.

 

[Alaskawildkat]

Of course the Fair can also be a scary place:

 

[Alaskawildkat]

The Marines presence had added meaning, along with the floral display just across from their exhibit.

 

[Alaskawildkat]

Added views from along the fair way:

 

[Alaskawildkat]

And then there is always the obligatory Fair Food:

 

[Alaskawildkat]

Finally (apologies for the redundancy) some of our contributions in the Fair's Photo Competition.

 

[Alaskawildkat]

OK, not quite finally. Always amazed at the talents of others on display as well.

 

[Arlcatsfan]

All we need now is a moose karma sighting and we are in business.Thanks Alaska.

 

[Catfanincolo]

Great pics, Alaska. Keep em coming.

We DO need a moose sighting for Friday night’s opener, please.

 

[Alaskawildkat]

All we need now is a moose karma sighting and we are in business.Thanks Alaska.

Great pics, Alaska. Keep em coming.

We DO need a moose sighting for Friday night’s opener, please.

This morning's vegetable sighting has to be a good omen.

Last night on the evening news two giant pumpkins were featured being lifted out of their greenhouse by a crane after the roof had been cut to allow their exit. Reportedly they weighed at least 1500 pounds apiece and were to be headed to the Alaska State Fair for the Giant Pumpkin Weigh-In.

Then this morning on my way to work, what should pull up alongside of me:

 

[Arlcatsfan]

This morning's vegetable sighting has to be a good omen.

Last night on the evening news two giant pumpkins were featured being lifted out of their greenhouse by a crane after the roof had been cut to allow their exit. Reportedly they weighed at least 1500 pounds apiece and were to be headed to the Alaska State Fair for the Giant Pumpkin Weigh-In.

Then this morning on my way to work, what should pull up alongside of me:

Those two are gonna make a lot of pumpkin pie.No pumpkin shortage this year in the state of Alaska.Another omen on the Wildcat side.Can’t wait for Friday.

 

[stpaulcat]

This morning's vegetable sighting has to be a good omen.

Last night on the evening news two giant pumpkins were featured being lifted out of their greenhouse by a crane after the roof had been cut to allow their exit. Reportedly they weighed at least 1500 pounds apiece and were to be headed to the Alaska State Fair for the Giant Pumpkin Weigh-In.

Then this morning on my way to work, what should pull up alongside of me:

Could we get a coupla those for NU's offensive line?

 

[JoeWildcat]

This morning's vegetable sighting has to be a good omen.

Last night on the evening news two giant pumpkins were featured being lifted out of their greenhouse by a crane after the roof had been cut to allow their exit. Reportedly they weighed at least 1500 pounds apiece and were to be headed to the Alaska State Fair for the Giant Pumpkin Weigh-In.

Then this morning on my way to work, what should pull up alongside of me:

Aren’t those big pumpkins a good omen for Illinois, not us?

 

[Alaskawildkat]

The thought had crossed my mind, but I guess their retroactive win against Nebraska qualified.

By the way, I heard on Monday night's news that the pictured Big One won the competition coming in at something over 1800 pounds. Dale Marshall's 2019 winning entry though still remains his biggest at a little over 2000 pounds. If I recall correctly, it set a State Record, but apparently not a World Record.

 

[Alaskawildkat]

Those two are gonna make a lot of pumpkin pie.No pumpkin shortage this year in the state of Alaska.Another omen on the Wildcat side.Can’t wait for Friday.

Someone viewing those Giant Pumpkin photos commented on the prospect of one of those rolling off the truck. I guess I would have been worse off than Little Jack Horner stuck in a Pumpkin Pie given that with the top having been down on my car there would have been no metal between me and the adjacent truck's rolling Monster Pumpkin.

 

[Alaskawildkat]

This morning's vegetable sighting has to be a good omen.

Last night on the evening news two giant pumpkins were featured being lifted out of their greenhouse by a crane after the roof had been cut to allow their exit. Reportedly they weighed at least 1500 pounds apiece and were to be headed to the Alaska State Fair for the Giant Pumpkin Weigh-In.

Then this morning on my way to work, what should pull up alongside of me:

FWIW here are some screen shots from the Sunday evening news feature:

 

[Alaskawildkat]

Not sure if whoever put that final graphic together appreciated what he was saying about Dale's size.