If you’re on the wait list for a tent at the Centre County Grange Encampment and Fair, chances are you’ll be waiting for a long, long time.

“We’re seriously talking a thousand years,” said Darlene Confer, the fair’s general manager.

Only one or two of the 980 tents on the fairgrounds are ceded to someone new each year, Confer said. This year, not a single spot opened for those patient souls on the waiting list. It’s gotten so tough to get a spot, Confer said that the committee overseeing the list decided to close it this year.

“We just are not taking any more names, because all that tends to do is give false hope,” Confer said.

The tents, the encampment — these are the hallmarks of the fair, stamping it with a warm and familiar character, Confer said.

“The fair is 137 years old, and the tenting tradition is that old also,” she said. “I think it’s probably one of most important aspects of our fair. It certainly makes us one of the most unique fairs in the nation.”

Tenting at Grange Fair is a beloved tradition for Centre County families. Spots in the encampment are heirlooms, passed down through the generations like family rings.

Barbara Tobias’ parents started her family’s tenting tradition in 1928 and left the tent to her when they died. Tobias has written into her will that the tent will pass to her eldest son upon her death.

“A lot of us make sure the tent is taken care of upon our demise,” Tobias said.

Tobias, 69, has tented at Grange Fair for each of the past 40 years. She plans to be there this year.

“I’m afraid I’d miss something if I didn’t go,” Tobias said.

The Centre Hall native’s first destination, after she’s moved her belongings into her tent, is to make the rounds of her neighbors.

“I go and look down my row to make sure everybody’s there. I have to go and find out how all of them are. I find out, healthwise, if there’s any drastic change. I’ll see if there’s a baby buggy outside, which means there’s a new person in your row,” Tobias said.

All the down time at the fair is also a great time to catch up with family, Tobias said.

“Being so close with family for a week, you realize even more just how important they are,” she said.

Pleasant Gap resident Patty Bird, 56, has attended Grange Fair every year of her life. Bird’s family has been tenting since the beginning — 1874. Her parents had adjoining tents and met and eventually fell in love at the fair. When her parents consolidated in one tent site, the daughter of the new family that moved in next door became Bird’s lifelong best friend.

Bird still sleeps in her tent throughout the fair and has only missed five nights of Grange Fair in the past 30 years.

“Grange Fair is really deep in my family. I grew up with it, my kids grew up with it, and now my grandchildren stay in the tent during the fair,” Bird said.

Both Bird and Tobias still have a long way to go to make it into Darlene Confer’s annual photograph though. For the past few years, Confer has taken a photo of tenters who have spent 80 or more years at the fair.

“Last year’s photo had five people in it, but I know some did not make the photo,” Confer said. “From what I’ve heard, there are about 10 or so” people who qualify to be in the photo. What keeps the Grange Fair tenting tradition going so strong?

It’s the happiness and tranquility that comes with spending a week relaxing with loved ones and old friends, Confer said.

“Its just a feeling of camaraderie — year after year seeing the same faces. ... As the years go by, you truly do become a part of a larger family.”