The County Fair

Boy do I remember when I was a kid and how exciting it was to go to the fair. The animals, the rodeo, the carnival, great fun.

But now it has been at least 3 years since I have went and in the last 10 years have probably only went 3 times. Why you might ask? Well then I will let you know why.

For 14 years my wife was a 4H leader and we had a rabbit club for the kids that were too young to have big animals. It was fun and there are a lot of kids that went through our club that still consider us part of their extended family. We also had some interesting things happen during years as leaders.

The one that sticks out in my mind the most is when we got a call from a hysterical mother wondering what we were doing teaching her daughter that.

Ok what is that..Well part of 4H is teaching how to tell the difference between males and females and animal husbandry. Guess what the subject was that day. So after a very long conversation with one very upset mother my wife finally got her to understand that it was part of 4H.

Now back to the fair...Everyone has been to a county fair but did you ever think about what it took to get it together and keep it running and then take it back down? Ok probably not, but after 13 years of putting it together, and then being stuck there for 16+ hours everyday and then taking it all back down when someone says fair to me all I can think of is work.

Ok not all of my memories are bad so I will share some of the funnier ones with you.

My oldest son was showing his rabbit, and his mother had drilled into him how he had to watch the judge, don't take your eyes off the judge. So there were 4 other kids with him and they all set their rabbits down on the table, and the judge walked up and started to look at the rabbits slowly walking down the table. My son was doing exactly as he was told and did not take his eyes off the judge..even though his rabbit was tired of sitting there and had went over to the rabbit next to him and was trying his best to molest it. I don't know what was funnier watching his rabbit or watching my wife..she was in a state of shock. But hey my son was doing exactly what he was told to do.

After the rabbits, my boys grew up and went to having sheep. My oldest son loved it, and worked with his lamb every day. Now my youngest was not even close to caring, and spent as little time as he could with his. Well at the sale that year he I took his sheep to the sale ring and sent him in with it. It was not too pretty but he did get it around the ring once and it sold, so it was time for them to leave but his lamb decided that it had gone far enough! Well the crowd was getting a good chuckle out of it and I was amused by it myself but the sale had to go on.

I went into the show ring and grabbed the sheep under the jaw like you are supposed to and it followed me right out. But while this is all going on the auctioneer is giving a running commentary and it finished with; Oh Oh here comes Daddy.

So after 13 years of doing this, some of the kids we had started with were now in their early twenties and it was last year that we were 4H leaders and the boys were showing sheep again. One of the boys we had in our original group showed up and was looking at the sheep. Now we had known this kid for 13 years and he was in fact working under me at the mill at that time. He was a handful when he was young but had grow up into a real good young man.

Well my wife spotted him across the sheep pens and yelled out at him..and I quote. "Hey Shelton, what are you up to, looking for a new girl friend". Well I will close with that...

It is what it is

Rod