“The lads in their hundreds to Ludlow come in for the fair,” A. E. Housman wrote. And so they do, so they do… lads and lassies, and kids and old folks, young marrieds and middle-aged, in they come for the fair.
*I counted it up, and over the years I’ve been (in most cases, multiple times) to two state fairs (New York and Rhode Island); to county fairs in Vermont (Orleans, Addison) and New York (Steuben, Ontario); to the Washington County Pomona Grange Fair (which is BIGGER than the Rhode Island state fair); to Woodstock Fair in Connecticut; to the “Big E” Eastern States Exposition, or Springfield (Massachusetts) Fair; to Steuben County Dairy Festival; to the New York World’s Fair in 1964; and to various 4-H fairs and such.
*So what can you do at OUR fair, Steuben County Fair, now, this week?
*Drop in and visit your County Historical Society at the one-room schoolhouse. There were almost 400 rural schools in Steuben… see how far the Society’s come in documenting them. And experience a little about one-room school days.
*Visit the rest of the “history corner,” including the Steuben County Fair Museum and the Memorial Log Cabin.
*Go to the Grange building, and check out the entries in this year’s Dairy Festival photo contest.
*Enjoy the antique farm engines… gas, diesel, steam, hot air. Some of them will be running at various times.
*Stop in at the conservation cabin for info on wildlife, parks, hunting, fishing, boating, invasive species – one-stop shopping for the outdoors.
*Visit the livestock, by all means! This is the heart of the fair. The Fair has competitions in beef cattle, dairy cattle, meat goats, poultry, and rabbits. The simultaneous 4-H competitions include most of the same, plus cavy, dairy goat, sheep, and swine.
*Get hungry by inspecting the fruit, produce, vegetable, and culimary entries. Likewise look over the 4-H entries, and see how the rising generation is doing.
*Learn about beekeeping.
*Pick up interesting information from dozens of agencies and community groups.
*Watch harness racers! Harness racing has been a feature of Steuben County Fair since the 1850s.
*Take in the carnival and the midway. I personally like the Scrambler and the Tilt-A-Whirl. I also like to get a root beer, and a hot dog with a squirt of yellow mustard.
*Try your skills at turkey calling.
*See if you can handicap the truck and tractor pulls.
*Speaking of trucks, feel overawed at the Monster Truck Show.
*If you go in for that sort of thing, enjoy the Demolition Derby.
*Groove to the country music strains of Lonestar.
*If you haven’t been… go. If you USED to go… go back. If you go every year… carry on. Do the stuff you ALWAYS do at the fair. Nostalgia’s great. But try one new thing too… one thing you wouldn’t normally do. This is Steuben County Fair’s bicentennial year. If you go, you’ll be helping the Fair make history.