Fairs, that is, bumpkins.
I have now hit the Lorain County Wellington Fair and the Portage County Randolph Fair and am seriously planning (requires working around volleyball games, choir practice, football games, historical society meetings, doctor’s appointments and the bloodmobile, for starters) to hie myself off to catch the Great Geauga County Fair up in Burton. Notice that the first two have the name of the towns which are the local venues (Does Burton get that kind of billing?). There’s a reason for that. Both county fairs were originally held in the county seats–Elyria, Ravenna–while Wellington and Randolph had their own affairs going on, separately. When the real estate upon which the festivities were being held got to be got to be more valuable for commercial development than could be justified by just one big gathering per year–with pigs and chickens, even–the events got moved out to “the sticks” where there were already fairs going on…and fairly(That’s a joke, son) well-known too. The State of Ohio, the agriculture society, anyway, at some point declared that only one fair per county would be designated as THE county fair and would be supported as such. There may well be other fairs around the state with the same name issues (Canfield?), but basically, it comes down to commercial values. Forward-looking fair boards are always trying to come up with other money-making activities to be held on the fairgrounds, to bring people in and to pay for the upkeep and improvements always needed.
Anyway, I think that it’s the aroma of hot grease on the midway that really gets me. The animal barns are another story, but we won’t go there; I was all too familiar with what comes wafting out of those facilities. This time we got strict orders to give the apple dumplings–with ice cream, and the doughnuts produced by the Wellington Dukes Band Boosters (for the last thirty or forty years or so) a try (Try? I’ve been doing the doughnuts for years now). Definitely a good piece of advice; they were popular at choir practice. In Randolph, I went for the deep-fried (aren’t they all?) cheese curds, which really hit the spot. I always try to get something I can’t or won’t make at home. Then, I must admit, I went home and stopped on the way in Rootstown for a Jamocha shake. Topped things off just fine, thank you very much.
I also must say that I am very impressed with the fact that 4-H has moved along with the times and is offering a vast array of programs of all sorts to kids of all ages. My day, it was largely livestock and sewing, nowadays, there’s public speaking, electronics, ag-related everything, gun sports (train ‘em right, avoid a fight), photography, conservation–you name it. Good stuff. The Edinburg Seam Busters dazzled with purple ribbons (grand champion stuff) and the newbies got to show their stuff too. Live and learn for everybody.
