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County fairs picture perfect

Ryn Gargulinski: Local Columnist

A county fair means one

thing. Crouching down

into an immobile ball

for several hours beside the pigpens.

No, I was not hiding from the

cops. Nor was I attempting to

steal a corncob from an unsuspecting

sow.

I was armed with a camera to

get the ultimate photo of a smiling

pig. After several attempts

that included a sleeping sow, a

just-waking sow and part of a

sow’s butt after he turned around

at the wrong moment, I finally

got him.

He was grinning like a banshee

and the wire fence wasn’t

even blocking his nostrils, like in

the other 697 shots I took in

those several crouching hours.

Animals are hard to capture on

film as, unlike humans, they

don’t stare stupidly into the lens

with a fake smile by merely

hearing the word “cheese.”

I’ll not recall the sow’s name

but I do know he was my highlight

of last year’s Quay County

Fair. Not to say, of course, that

other county fairs don’t have

their own highlights.

But I’ll bet even New

Mexico’s Curry County or

Roosevelt County fairs may be

all about the pigs.

Unless one is a goat owner,

then it’s all about the goats. Or it

could also be all about the sheep,

the steer, the horses or even the

rabbits. Heck, someone might

even argue it’s all about the

guinea pigs.

Then there are the paintings,

the leatherwork, the woven ponchos

or bright-pink handmade

pants that make up the arts and

crafts bulk of any respectable

fair. If I thought crouching down

for several hours for a pig photo

merits a ribbon, that’s only

because I didn’t yet take a

gander at the hundreds of gorgeous

entries that sometimes

even include a kid’s rendition of

a bumble bee.

And photos. A longtime fair

manager told me photos are the

new hot entry in the fairs. That is

both exciting and sad.

Exciting because it means I

might get to see another shot of a

smiling pig, but sad because it

also means the more traditional

entries — such as canning,

sewing or growing the biggest

tomato — are dying out.

Not everyone lives on or near

a farm anymore, the manager

lamented. And kids are more apt

to be taken by projects that are

less costly and time consuming

than spending months growing

goats or raising tomatoes.

Regardless of what entries are

most popular at today’s fairs, a

couple of attractions that will

never die are the junk food and

the carnival.

For some strange reason, children

of every age will never tire

of stuffing their cheeks with cotton

candy and then spinning

around on a high-pitched ride

until they get the cotton candy

back.

The carnival’s lure also

includes those games where one

spends $52 to win a stuffed animal

worth $3. It often includes

hitting balloons with darts and I

often avoid them altogether.

I never had very good aim

anyway — unless it’s with a

camera by a pig pen.

Ryn Gargulinski writes for

Freedom Newspapers of New

Mexico. She can be reached at:

[email protected]