I've had my hand in more than one column about fairs

When I decided to write about the excitement of the local county fairs, I realized right away that wasn’t exactly a unique topic for me in August.

Just for fun and because as you may know by now if you read very often, I am my own greatest fan, I took a look back at my column files. Sure enough, I haven’t missed many Augusts in the past 20 years without writing about the fair.

There is the column where I just made lists of the sights, sounds and smells I had experienced at the fair. Sights like “tattoos on fat gals wandering the carnival,” sounds like “bawling heifers tied in the dairy barn and bawling, cranky kids in strollers on the midway” or smells like “cow manure on a city dude’s loafers and fryer grease hanging in the air over the corn dog and tater booths.”

Now that was a creative idea and easy to write.

I devoted one fair column to the dances on the slab. It doesn’t tell me when the Roosevelt County Fair started having dances. Growing up I don’t remember us calling theme dances. Instead we had the Old Time Fiddlers Contest that spontaneously led to dancing and we had square dances featuring the “Starlight Swingers,” our local square dance group. The Baptists and the Church of Christ elders looked the other way.

In that column I talked about daddies teaching their daughters to dance perched atop his big boots and the amazing range of ages out on the slab.

A sampling of that column: “I’m not out there on the dance floor much, if any myself these days, but I’m glad it has evolved into such a big deal at our fair.”

“Our lives have become too busy these days, our dealings with our neighbors and those we do business with have often become too rancorous.

“It’s good to take time out, even in the middle of a busy fair week, to visit with each other, speak to someone you should have spoken to a long time ago and just get along in a friendly Western way.

“Finally, if we teach a few more little girls to dance with their daddies those little girls will grow up expecting a lot from the guy they give a dance to in their teens.”

I did one column where I talked to a kid and his pig on my morning walk one day, while the two were in training for the fair. I even wrote a poem about the encounter.

I met a pig on a walk around the other day.

He grunted several times but had little else to say.

Driven by a young man with his new show stick.

Roadwork before the fair should do the trick.

Another column, written while I was still on staff at the newspaper was bittersweet. Just prior to the fair we had lost former county agent and long-time fair volunteer Floyd McAlister. It was during the recession of 2008-2009 and all were down about Floyd and worried if the fair would be a success with the recession still lingering.

The fair board president that year, Tim Allison, caught me on Friday night to thank me for doing a story about Floyd and how much he meant to everyone. While he leaned on the rake he was applying to a livestock barn I could see he was worn out. Here’s the way I wrote about it.

“Allison said Friday night that he loved the fair but he sure would be glad when it was over. All volunteers get that feeling at about that point in their toils but he went right back to work as I wandered off.

“Allison and his board have a lot to be proud of this year. It was the 20th anniversary of the Junior Livestock Sale in which a milestone sales total was reached. The Ladies Lead was back at the fair after many years absence and the first Special Needs Day was held for students in local schools.

“From the stage at the slab Friday Steve Davis reminded folks that they were attending the oldest county fair in the state. Something we should be proud of.”

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

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