COCHRANTON — Margie Ridgeway’s lived in Cochranton her whole life, and her memories of the community fair that started the year she was born are as colorful as the celebration itself.

“People would gussy their animals all up” for the parade, she said Wednesday as she and her daughter, Jeanne Boswell, waited for the start of this year’s spectacle. “I remember the cows, and the sheep and everything else. ... The fire siren would ring (to signal the start of the parade), and the animals would be

scared to death,” she added with a spirited laugh.

There weren’t any frightened creatures to be seen on Cochranton’s streets Wednes-day when that fire siren signaled the start of one of the main highlights of the 80th annual Cochranton Community Fair — aptly themed “Thanks for the Memories!” — but at the heart of things, not a whole lot else has changed over the decades.

“You just don’t find this in a big city,” Ridgeway said.

Boswell also has vivid and fond remembrances of the fair and the parade. After long childhood days spent playing at the fairgrounds, “I remember looking out the window when I was supposed to be in bed, wanting to be back at the fair so bad,” she said. “That was a long time ago.”

And those sorts of memories have also kept Boswell calling Cochranton her lifelong home.

“I’ve been all over the world, but I would never live anywhere else,” she said.

This year’s parade included around 140 units, according to organizer Rita Preston.

And while that event’s wrapped up for another year, there’s a lot more happening as the fair continues through Saturday.

The agriculture-based fair is one of the largest annual events of its kind in Crawford County, and one of the few remaining free-admission fairs in the region. There are live bands performing nightly, rides and numerous other attractions and events for fair-goers of all ages.

“Come on down,” Preston invited. “Enjoy the fair. Enjoy the food. Check out the animals, pet a few noses. Walk through the home shows, and see what talent there is in the community — enjoy the fair.”

HERE SHE IS ...

Cochranton recently crowned its newest royalty at the 2008 Cochranton Community Fair Pageant.