After 27 years working as the CEO of the Minnesota State Fair, Jerry Hammer is now retired. Never one for job-hopping, he’d worked at every State Fair since 1970, when he was 15, starting with a position in the greenhouse and working his way up to the top job. So, what was it like Thursday – opening day of the 2023 State Fair – when he walked onto the fairgrounds for the first time in 53 years as a “civilian?” “It was bizarre,” said Hammer, who is 68.