Remember when you would count down days to the show?
I thought we had the coolest parents because we got to miss school to go to the show. My dad wasn’t into the idea of dealing with crowds so we became ASK members and went on members day, which was typically on a Thursday. We had 4 members cards for the family that ended up admitting the 6 or so extra neighbours, relas, family friends, etc. who had tagged along. Basically, once you got in you’d go back out with an extra card and hand it over to someone so they could come in.
This strategy worked well at the main entrance, but the problem was when it got to entering the place for “Tatoo Night” or whatever the ka-arena where they had entertainment (read poachers being shot at with guns that produced colored smoke…that stuff jazzed us so much!). Once you got in you couldn’t leave…unless my then slightly-sloshed-belligerent-dad app
Some of my memories…
– OK, what was the big freaking deal about the train…remember how we would queue for hours just to go round in a circle a couple of times…and we thought the ka-tunnel was so deadly.
– And how flimsy was the merry-go-round?
– Anyone remember the Professor Namaan head on the plate display? I tried to bring my ujuaji in the stand about how fake the whole thing was and was promptly whisked away.
– The KBL beer making display was too much, and anyone drink tea at the KTDA stand…that’s the best tea I’ve ever had to date.
– And the ka-bazaar area, where you got your plastic sunglasses and plastic kofias…some parkie tried to snatch mine and I promptly chased him down for it…hey, it was plastic none of that flimsy paper stuff.
eared like he was about to cause a scene about the idiocy of that rule…which was more often than not….hehehe.
What at your memories of the show?
Cotton candy!!!
When I was a kid, the show was the only place I knew where you could get it.
A once in a year treat!
– Steve
hehe memories. I am actually going to Kakamega Show kesho afternoon. After my mwenjoyo at Nairobi show last year and since i splashed out (2k) for a annual ASK membership I might as well go to the shows. (You plan to visit all African countries – me I plan to visit all shows!)
By the way you should see the rides kids these days get. walalala. but that train and the long queue for it, is still there. as is the cotton candy.
How could you go past the KCC stand. Maziwa Mala the authentic version!!!!!! Toyota, where we got stcoked up with red caps for boys, a T-shirt for girls and an umbrella for Mathe!!!
Ha! Ory, you forgot the tall, spiral aluminium-metal slide. No matter how hot it was, we’d line up for that. You’d be given some dusty mat to sit on and slide away! I
Tatoo night, that was the highlight of the show, well, that and watching the parachute squad called Red Devils that descended into the area with red smoke at their heels. I also remember:
The shield shaped members badges (do they still look like that?)
The hats, esp the Bata ones with a spiral cut out on the top.
Goodies in nice paper bags especially the German stand.
Hearing music from that disco that was at the end of the showground near the merry-go-round…what was it called?
The KQ stand with the fake flight deck.
The 5 legged cow.
Throwing big rings onto items, hoping to win them (darnnit!)
And the cotton candy of course!:lol:
The cow with the open stomach.
Cheap neck-chains, gold for a day, tarnished forever.
My mother/aunt/someone always had a stand at the show–free food
No way I miss it.
Those ice creams that came in a round ball.
I must confess that we spent most of the day at the show visiting the cows and goats and pigs and generally all the farm animals and things (wasnt that what the show was supposed to be for)- my parents were wannabe farmers.
i used to love the anti stock theft unit vs poachers dramas – with the coloured smoke- and the red devils parachuters.
we always had packed lunch, except the 1 year my dad splashed out on the Kenya Railways buffet that had the saltiest ham in the world (i can still remember it 21 years later)- we went back to our packed lunches.
the jumping castle that was a real pink (or was it yellow) castle- one year it collapsed while we were on it coz some wicked kid came on with some sharp instrument or something.
when i was 12 we sat in the KR train and some guy narrated to us the story of the man eaters of tsavo and building the railway. many mny years later, i watched Ghost and the darkness and it wasnt half as exciting as sitting in the very carriage hearing the oral narrative.
plastic basins- i dont think my mom bought plastic basins anywhere else- we used to stock up on them- we always left the show laden with basins on our heads.
Planning for Nairobi show meant the most amazing outfit you could come up with !!!! why, i will never understand since it was so hot and dusty anyway so surely it would have made more sense to dress up in jeans trainers and a T shirt….. ah well i guess that was then…..
Hilarious!
Those ice-cream cups that were shaped like little soccer balls, the plastic shades and those tu hats that didnt go all around your head and had some long, colourful antenas!!
The crowds, the dust, the sun!!
That ice-cream was the bomb!!