FAIR FORGES BOND OF LOCAL COMMUNITY.

Byline: James Bemis Commentary

Every year, the big question is the same: Where do we start?

Entering the Ventura County Fair through the gate at Seaside Park is walking into a breathtaking world of movement and melody. Eyes and ears are overwhelmed at first, and the mind whirls like a spinning engine that can't quite reach ignition. But merging into the stream of humanity meandering on Main Street, as a brook is absorbed into a flowing river, you join the rhythm of the crowd.

Fairs are mythic events in our culture, American as apple pie, as universally loved as ice cream. They're celebrated in movies like ``State Fair'' and ``Meet Me in St. Louis,'' in books like ``Charlotte's Web'' and ``Pollyanna,'' in songs like ``April Love'' and ``It's a Grand Night for Singing.''

Fairs are organ music from the carousel, shrieks from the roller coaster, prize pumpkins the size of sports cars. Nighttime brings out the bright lights of the Ferris wheel, the faint, sweet sounds of country music from the grandstand, that glorious first sip of draft beer out of a plastic cup.

Then, that question again: Where do we start?

After braving full parking lots, shuttle buses and long lines to get in, this year we began with an old favorite, the Creative Living Pavilion, which is as close as anything is to being the heart of the fair.

Award-winning cookies, table settings, dresses and meals made with Spam were all prominently displayed. We arrived in the middle of the best strawberry dessert contest, where the team of judges looked to us like the luckiest people at the fair - and they knew it.

Next, we headed to livestock areas for a peek at the barnyards run by the 4-H Club. As a boy, I loved the animals - some are so cute they almost make you a vegetarian - and I'm glad my kids do too. There's something so honorable and natural about the people - especially the young ones - working with the livestock that you're ready to believe the four H's stand for Head, Heart, Hands and 'Holesome.

Why do fairs tug at our hearts? Maybe it's because we feel real ties to our local community there, a reminder that we're still a particular people in a particular place. At county fairs, time stands still for a while, corporate industrialism stops and our sense of community starts. There's appreciation, rather then contempt, for local life.

Those who work all year in sterile, climate-controlled offices - like me - can smell horses and cows and hay. We see the biggest pickles and the smallest avocados, the best pies and most colorful quilts, the reddest tomatoes and longest carrots.

These things aren't imported from New York or China, but are grown and made right here by people we know, who live in places like Ojai, Santa Paula, Oxnard, Camarillo, Oak Park. I recognized the names of some who won Future Farmers awards, photography honors, cooking and baking prizes, agricultural contests. These were county residents, friends. It made me feel proud and a little bit humble.

The bonds of local community are under constant assault nowadays by politicians, advertisers and educators, claiming they can show us how to do things better, faster, cheaper. We're continually advised to think of ourselves as national or even global citizens. But it's not in our nature to feel devotion to something far away if we don't first love what's near.

It's the fundamental connection to our families and neighbors that makes for community life, and community life that makes for a strong, healthy people. For living things must be rooted in something solid, and for humans it's our sense of place, a sentiment that's reinforced by events like county fairs.

I've attended our county fair for nearly 40 years now, and every time I go, I find something old there. It's this sense of tradition, this link to our beloved little patch of land called Ventura County, this native soil of those closest to us that's being celebrated. More than just another day's entertainment, county fairs strike a deeper chord, a timeless melody that sings to us of everything that's right with the world - and it all starts right here, at home.