By David Sher

When I was a child growing up in Birmingham in the 1950s, there were four things I looked forward to all year: my birthday, Christmas in downtown Birmingham, the Iron Bowl, and the Alabama State Fair.

Fortunately, I still have a birthday.

But the Christmas downtown of my childhood is gone. The Iron Bowl left Birmingham. And the Alabama State Fair I remember is gone too.

You may have noticed that I said the fair is gone even though the 2026 Alabama State Fair is scheduled for September 18–27 at the Birmingham Race Course.

I hope people go.

I hope they have a wonderful time.

But it is nothing like the Alabama State Fair of my childhood.

It Was Enormous

There is almost no way to describe its magnitude.

The old Alabama State Fairgrounds in west Birmingham covered about 117 acres.

This wasn’t the kind of fair you could set up in a parking lot for a week and then haul away.

It was a sprawling, permanent complex that felt almost like a city unto itself.

Thousands upon thousands of people walked the midway.

And I’m not exaggerating what I remember.

In 1948, an estimated 65,000 people attended Kiddies’ Day alone.

Sixty-five thousand people. In one day.

The year before, school buses carrying children arrived from 16 Alabama counties.

No wonder it seemed like the whole world was there.

The Midway Was Another World

You could hear the fair before you could see all of it.

Barkers called out from every direction, trying to lure you into games of chance.

Throw a ring around a bottle.

Knock down the milk bottles.

Shoot at a target.

Toss a ball.

Pitch coins onto dishes.

Everywhere you looked, enormous stuffed animals hung above the booths as prizes.

It seemed like everybody could win one of those big plush animals.

Everybody but me.

There were Ferris wheels, bumper cars, carousels and rides that spun you around until you could hardly walk straight.

There were livestock competitions and exhibits.

There were circus acts, high-wire performers, trained animals, stunt shows and fireworks.

And yes: there was automobile racing. The Fairgrounds had a major racetrack and a grandstand seating thousands. A 1948 fair featured big-car races, midget auto races and automobile stunt shows.

Then there was the food.

Cotton candy. Candy apples. Corn dogs. Popcorn. Roasted peanuts. Barbecue. Snow cones.

Today that might not sound exotic.

To a Birmingham kid in the 1950s, it was spectacular.

I spent Almost Every Nickel I Had

One of my strongest fair memories has nothing to do with a giant ride.

One year I came across a game displaying beautiful glass plates in different shapes and sizes.

They glistened under the lights.

You threw nickels toward the plates, and if your nickel landed just right, you won the plate.

I decided I was going to win something for my mom.

So I started throwing nickels.

And kept throwing nickels.

As I remember it, I spent almost $3, which was a lot of money for a child in those days.

But finally I won a couple of plates.

I proudly carried them home, convinced my mother would be thrilled with her present.

She wasn’t.

Both my mom and dad were upset I had spent almost all my money.

I expected congratulations.

I got a lesson in financial responsibility.

More than 70 years later, I can still see those plates.

The Greatest School Day of The Year

Then there was School Day.

Schools let out early and children of all ages descended on the Fairgrounds.

We roamed around in herds.

There were no cell phones.

There was no texting.

No parents were using an app to see where you were.

You just wandered.

And everywhere I turned, I saw somebody I knew.

Friends. Classmates. Aunts. Uncles. Cousins.

The fair wasn’t just entertainment.

It was one of Birmingham’s great annual communal gatherings.

There Is One Part I Can’t Romanticize

There is another memory that has to be part of this story.

The Alabama State Fair of my childhood was segregated.

As I remember it, African Americans were allowed to attend only on designated  “Colored Days.”

A 1961 federal court case later documented racial segregation and discrimination at the Fairgrounds and Kiddie Land.

That’s part of the Birmingham we lived in too.

I can treasure my childhood memories while recognizing that not every Birmingham child was given the same opportunity to make them.

I Wish You Could Have Seen It

The Alabama State Fair is coming to the Birmingham Race Course this month.

I’m glad the name survives.

But when people my age hear Alabama State Fair, we see something else.

We see a gigantic midway filled with thousands of people.

We hear barkers calling.

We smell cotton candy and popcorn.

We see cousins and classmates coming toward us through the crowd.

We remember leaving school early.

We remember the rides that scared us.

And the stuffed animals we desperately wanted to win.

And in my case, I remember two little glass plates that cost me almost every nickel I had.

If you never experienced the Alabama State Fair at the Birmingham Fairgrounds in those days, you missed something very special.

If you grew up in Birmingham, you might enjoy these columns:

• Birmingham’s best restaurant ever
• Overcoming a regrettable Birmingham blunder
• Soft spot in my heart for an old Birmingham Department Store
• Orlando may have Disney World, but we had Kiddieland
• My mama loved this Birmingham restaurant

David Sher is the founder and publisher of ComebackTown.  He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).

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Invite David to speak for free to your group about how we can have a more prosperous metro Birmingham. dsher@comebacktown.com