2009 Oregon State Fair Opens Amidst Rainclouds and Sunny Speech From Governor

The Fair is just getting underway, and will run through September 7th, with "Too Big to Miss" great entertainment daily!

Photos and video by Tim and Bonnie King

(SALEM, Ore.) - The weather didn't dampen spirits on opening day of the Oregon State Fair 2009. Governor Kulongoski made light of the liquid sunshine, a tradition for most Oregon events.

Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski

"No place else in the United States could you open a state fair during the summer months... and we'd be in raincoats! Come on, this is what it is like on the Fourth of July, it never changes, it is just who we are."

Oregon's 150th Anniversary has been the subject of much attention, and Governor Kulongoski offered strong praise for this historic milestone.

"I actually love the Oregon State Fair and I've been bringing my family here for decades because I think this is where Oregon is at. All parts of Oregon, urban, rural, north, south east and west, we all come together here at the Oregon State Fair."

Kulongoski says this year is special year, as residents celebrate the Oregon State Fair's past while reinventing the future.

"In this sense the staff of the Oregon State Fair is following the old sage Yogi Berra's advice, 'When you come to a fork in the road, take it.' When it comes to the Oregon State Fair, take an old road and a new one at the same time. And be successful with both. When it comes to the old road, you can't plow much deeper into Oregon's agricultural roots, and unique rural heritage, than the Oregon State Fair."

A recent act of vandalism at Salem's Hammond Elementary school drew the governor's attention. Oregon kids who set out to compete for the state's tallest sunflower saw their project destroyed, and instead received special recognition from the state's highest office.

The governor said, "Nothing could destroy their great spirit and I know I speak for you and for the parents and I want to tell them they are all winners and they all have our blue ribbon."

In turn they presented Governor Kulongoski with a sunflower that you might say, was a different kind of winner.

The Fair is just getting underway, and will run through September 7th, 2009.

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Produced by Tim King

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