She delivered cakes to famous Mid-State Fair acts. It was as fun as you’d imagine
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- The famous Mid-State Fair in Paso Robles starts Wednesday and is a 12-day event.
- The columnist recalls attending decades of concerts, including Smokey Robinson in 1987.
- The fair launched 80 years ago and can have widely varying temperatures, day to night.
Of course, the temperature has risen in Paso Robles. Wednesday was, after all, opening day at the California Mid-State Fair.
There’s a hidden contract with Ma Nature, I think: The thermometer must soar for at least part of that 12-day event.
Note, so be prepared: There have been cooler concert nights when the most popular last-minute purchases from fair vendors were hoodies, blankets and plenty of hot coffee.
That’s among my many memories of our fair, which launched 80 years ago.
No, funny person. I don’t remember it from that far back.
Some of my recollections (from later in its long run, thank you) likely are more varied and eclectic than the experiences most fair goers have had.
It’s quite a mix: Mistaken identities, kids, rides, big cakes, many photos, éclair dipping, funnel cakes, researching for and writing concert reviews/reports, parking jams, and, for years, long hours manning our bakery booth a mere two spaces away from the ever-popular Old West Cinnamon Rolls spot.
Ever tried competing with the aromas of cinnamon and vanilla? Challenging.
What were the standout memories from 6 decades of fairs?
As a young mom, I dutifully took my two elementary-school sons to the fair year after year, me with barf bags in hand in case there were any unfortunate juxtapositions of pigging out and fast, centrifugal rides.
That was true love from a gal who, in those days, could get car sick if someone slammed her vehicle door too hard.
Fast-forward to our years at our Upper Crust Bakery in Cambria, when we or our staff members delivered big cakes with personalized decorations to every main-stage performer. The cake’s designs often replicated the star’s most recent CD covers.
As my handsome new husband carried a cake along the midway toward the gates, he invariably drew side-eye glances and even comments from passersby.
“Is that Kenny Rogers?” people would whisper after a quick glance at him, as we hurried toward the grandstand’s backstage area to deliver the sweets.
Yes, there was a slight resemblance. He was tall, wore cowboy shirts, bolo ties and black hats and in those days, he had a nicely trimmed beard. Do you see it?
(A couple of people thought I was Liza Minelli, but nah. Not anymore, although I’ve heard it a lot through my life. I think they’d been imbibing too much at the beer booth.)
After each cake presentation, we usually got to meet and hang with the stars for a bit and then watch their shows. Being the daughter of a longtime musician, though, I often gravitated toward the band members.
We often shared the delivery duty with our staff members, especially the high-school age ones. Boy, were we popular!
At the fair, I rekindled former connections with some of my fave cake recipients, such as Dolly Parton, Buck Owens and, separately, his ex-wife Bonnie Owens (who, oddly enough, was appearing with her second ex-spouse Merle Haggard).
We especially loved the reaction we got from Kenny Rogers’ then-wife Marianne. She hollered out toward their dressing-room trailer, saying “Get out here, Kenny! Kathe’s here with the cake. I won’t let her cut it until you see it, and I’m hungry!”
One year, to overcome a profound lack of backstage passes for the public, we assigned the Stevie Wonder cake delivery to a teen blind pianist and his mom. Later, we learned that the star had taken the talented young man back to his trailer for a half hour to listen to him play and to share music stories and tips.
Then there were those eclairs.
In our booth in the main-vendor building, those cold French pastries were my ammo against the competition’s inevitable cinnamon-roll rush.
We had a refrigerator packed with our eclairs prefilled with house-made custard. As soon as we sold one, we’d dip it into warm, melted chocolate ganache, flip the treat into a paper hot-dog tray to catch any drips and hand it to the customer.
Mouth-watering.
Our marketing ace-on-the-hole? Hungry youngsters.
And I quote: “I’ll give you this éclair free if you promise to nibble on it slowly from one end of the midway to the other, telling people who ask exactly where you got it. Do a good job, and I’ll give you another one!”
It worked every time.
The young influencer would work their magic, and our lines would often equal the number of folks waiting for cinnamon rolls.
Some of our helpers came back several times for repeat assignments. I do hope they avoided the Tilt-a-Whirl for a while.
Other memories were equally varied
Trying to do our promised cake-decorating demos with buttercream at 110 degrees, when the medium was more accurately described as “buttersoup.”
Wandering around in the heat, taking photos for the newspaper. My all-time favorite remains one of a little, 3-year-old girl playing her hot-pink toy guitar alongside a Dixieland band.
I snapped the shot before we went to the Sugarland/Sara Bareilles concert so I could write about that entertainment. That same year, we saw, and I reviewed the Chicago performance, lucky us. Loved both shows.
There was John Denver’s minimalist set and his lovely, lyrical musical style.
Why so little décor?
“It has to fit in my plane,” he told us with a laugh.
Sadly, the 53-year-old avid pilot died in that small, experimental aircraft when it crashed into the sea in 1997 into Monterey Bay.
Other concert memories?
Taking granddaughter Tina Tanner to a 1987 Smokey Robinson show and buying her a T-shirt. She still remembers both, but the shirt wore out!
Watching mid-teen granddaughters Caity and Lyssie Tanner during a 2013 show, as they rocked out and took pictures for Grandma’s review in The Tribune.
We sure were an unlikely quartet watching the 1990s rock bands Goo Goo Dolls and Matchbox Twenty (Did I really just write that sentence? And more surprisingly, did we oldsters enjoy the show? We did.)
So many concerts, including the post-bakery year in which we bought tickets to and attended every grandstand concert. Every. Single. One.
Why did I do that to us?
Yeah, we were burnt, and not just from sunburn. Exhausting!
Memo: Be prepared
Back to the hoped-for temperature fluctuations: At a Sheena Easton show, we almost froze.
The pop-rocker, known for her revealing, glamazon attire, was barely wearing a very low cut, very short dress (better known as a wide belt).
A guy in the audience tried to hand her his long, heavy jacket, begging her to put it on because “you’re making me cold, just looking at you!”
When Easton asked the audience if she should do that, the crowd roared “YES!”
So, yeah, when you go to the fair, dress for heat, but do prepare for any other surprises Mother Nature might dole out.
