Fun Fact #557 Boone County Fair/ Olympics/ Bob's B-Day

 Fun Fact #557 

The Boone County Fair

In 1855 Boone County held it’s first fair at Big Thunder Park, before the Grange was founded in 1867 and relocated it to Spencer park and then again in 1964 when moved to its current location where the Pomona Grange once was. Today the Boone County fair is one of the biggest fairs in the State of Illinois and had been ranked among some of the top county fairs in The US as a whole – a feat attributed to the fact it's the largest still to be run by a Grange and not a Governmental body. Its a blast so please go enjoy it this weekend! 

Speaking of Fairs, we are now in the second to last day of the 2024 Olympics and thankfully we’re winning in terms of Medals won on the podium! But, the Olympics didn't always resemble the modern competitions it does now. In fact until the 1980s it was actually limited to Amateurs only, to encourage new faces every year, build kind relations with other countries and overall just promote international friendship. Then came The Communist Bloc who would publicly employee their athletes in farming, only to actually have them train in their respective sport all day –allowing them to slip by the IOC relatively unhindered and dominate on the world stage (Particularly the USSR). 

What changed this? Well you know that Stereotype that Canadians are always apologizing? Well that's not true, and they demonstrated it by boycotting, insulting and even taking the IOC to international court over the ability to have NHL Athletes play in the Winter Olympics. While they lost the case, the IOC did update their requirements anyway to allow for professional Athletes (officially) to enter into the Olympics for the first time in 1988.

Last but by far not least, Today is my little Brother Bob’s Birthday! Happy Birthday Bob! The best (and only) Little brother I have! … unlike the others who hold mere minutes above my head (lol). In any case thanks for reading, I hope you have a chance to go enjoy some wonderful New York Cherry Ice cream from The Fair this weekend and please have a Phenomenal day!

Just some bonus content:

Here are the diffrent types of Olympics held today:

• Summer Olympics (every 4 years)

• Winter Olympics (every 4 years)

• Games involving Ice, Snow and Frost.

• Paralympics (every 2 years)

• Both winter and summer Olympics for Athletes with Disabilities

• The Youth Olympics (every 2 years)

• International Olympics for Teenagers between 15-18 years old. Surprisingly The Us actually has trouble fielding a full team most years for this one and has been known to take last minute volunteers submitted by various highschools just to fill out the roster.

• The 5 Continental Games

• These are for sports which are predominantly limited to a particular region/continent of the world and thus are used for the International Olympic games. 

• Deaflympics 

• Olympics for the Deaf

• Special Games

• Olympic games for the learning impaired.