County fair memories...

When I was a kid, we used to go to the county fair every summer. Besides walking around with your friends, looking very cool, and occassionally riding the Himalaya (which totally ROCKED), it was the hot thing to throw darts at the balloons and win those cheesy mirrors with the heavy metal bands on them and the cardboard frames, especially for the teenage boys. You know, the ones with Ozzy and Alice Cooper and Whitesnake. You could also win those little alligator clips with multi-colored feathers on them.

I always thought those clips with the feathers were for your hair, and growing up I had several of them clipped to the curtains in my bedroom. They were pretty, and I loved them.

When I went off to college, I found out that the feather clips were commonly used as paraphernalia. More specifically, as roach clips for smoking dope.

I found one of those old feather clips not too long ago in a box of junk that I'd apparently been keeping since the 70s or eary 80s. So what I want to know now is this: Were those clips really meant for your hair? Or something else? Did all the older kids know that stoners were using them to smoke dope? Do they still have those things as prizes?

I haven't been to the county fair in years, and I mean like fifteen years. I think I'll make a point to check it out this summer.