♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Gary Slater: The big slide is a tremendous tradition here at the Iowa State Fair and if you have been in the area where it has been for the last 40 some, 50 years, that area is really congested.

And since we had to dismantle the whole slide in order to put a new foundation underneath of it and new supports, it just kind of made sense that we looked for a spot that might be maybe a little more prominent and also a little less congested.

Gary Slater: The big slide moved to a location that is just a little south and a little east of the Varied Industries Building or north of the Jacobson Exhibition Center, kind of at the end of where we have all the outdoor vendors kind of on the east side of that.

So just kind of the ease and comfort of our fairgoers.

♪♪ Curt Bedei: t was the timing of everything.

It was right before I would go to school and it was kind of that quiet time in farming where the crops weren't quite ready yet and it was just a great time for us to be able to get away and come and take a vacation.

And just being a part of the Fair over so many years it just became a special thing.

Curt Bedei: In 1983, my dad and I started on a journey that would last for decades.

And I was roughly about 4 years old when my dad took me down the slide for the first time.

And ever since then, with our burlap in tow and my mom camera ready, we would climb the stairs, take in the view and prepare for our descent.

It was something that my dad and I did together, it was our thing.

And it meant a lot to me going down the slide and being in that moment with my dad.

Curt Bedei: All your cares and worries disappear for that five seconds as you're going down the slide.

And it's amazing.

If you've never experienced that and just seeing it as an adult it may not mean a lot to you.

But as a child or as your kid, it means the world to them to see you go down the slide with them because it's, it's taking your adult or your parent out of their element for just a moment and you're seeing them as yourself, as a child.

And people, as a kid that means the world to them.

Curt Bedei: I would look forward to that moment every year.

Nothing else mattered until we went down the giant slide.

And then in 2016 at the ages of 76 and 36, my dad and I climbed the stairs for the last time together.

And in two years he was gone.

♪♪ Curt Bedei: We still continue to come to the Fair and enjoy all of the things that we enjoy doing together as a family.

I have a son of my own that is on his way and hopefully when he becomes old enough we'll be able to go down the big slide together and continue that tradition.

♪♪ (nature sounds)