Fair time stories

Well since it is that time of the year, I was wondering if anyone had any fair stories that need to be told. Here is one of mine:

Our club always seemed to move in in the middle of the night (fair moves animals in by club at a set time) So by 8 in the morning we pretty much have time to kill, Me and a couple of the other dads were just sitting outside the barns watching everyone unload, When a minivan pulled up to the hog barn and starts to unload 2 280lb hogs. They had put down a sheet, to cover the seats and that was about it. We look at each other and one of us says "well that minivan is never going to smell the same", when another says " I hope she didn't borrow it."

I do need to add we are in southern CA, most people do not own nor know how to tow a trailer so we see some interesting setup show up. U-hauls with hog panels over them to expensive show horse trailers with a goat inside.

Here is a cool story that I think could possibly be a national record for CONTINUOUS 4-H participation by 1 family at 1 county fair.  2016 marks the 70th consecutive year that a member of the Ray and Leone Mitchell family of Charles City, Iowa has had a 4-H member exhibiting at the Floyd County Fair.  Below is an article about it.

When it comes to exhibiting at the Floyd County Fair, there is one family that has made quite a mark on this annual celebration of Family Farming.  When the 2016 edition begins on July 20th in rural Charles City, it will mark the 70th consecutive year that a member of the Ray & Leone Mitchell family have exhibited various 4-H projects.  While the Mitchell name is synonymous with beef cattle in the county and throughout the state, they have also exhibited swine, sheep, goats, dogs, rabbits as well as countless non livestock projects.  All 10 of their children showed at the fair, then with no break 17 of their grandchildren showed then again no break as 12 of their great-grandchildren showed or are currently showing.  There are also 2 great-grandchildren and 2 great-great-grandchildren “in the wings” waiting for their first fair experience.  Once could definitely say that the Floyd County Fair is in the Mitchell blood.
Ray & Leone Mitchell, now deceased, were HUGE supporters of the Floyd County Fair and 4-H in general.  They served on the fair board, 4-H county committee, and as long time 4-H leaders helped establish both the West St. Charles Feeders and West St. Charles Goal Shooters 4-H clubs.  Ray was on the fair board when the current fairgrounds were built and established in 1954.  Ray & Leone along with their 10 children spent much time helping to build and landscape the current facilities.  In fact most of the old growth trees on the grounds were directly transplanted from the Mitchell grove south of Charles City.
3 generations of the family have been awarded Honorary 4-H member status for their adult work supporting Floyd County 4-H. Patriarch Ray Mitchell, daughter-in-law, Marlys Mitchell and grandson Tim Mitchell have all received the honor. In 2006, Ray and Leone were posthumously inducted into the Iowa 4-H Hall of Fame.
But perhaps their biggest legacy to the Floyd County Fair is the love of participating in 4-H they instilled in their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren.

This will be our 49th year at the state fair.  We've shown at a county fair 54 years, but we moved to a different county for 10 of them.

Some of the old time Iowa exhibitors may remember Kay and Kevin Lamparek from Swisher, Iowa, K & K Shorthorns.  They didn't last long, but were pretty tough to beat for a few years.  One extraordinarily hot year at the state fair, the flies were extremely bad in the cattle barn.  Kevin was trying to nap, but flies were so bad, he finally covered himself completely with a sleeping bag.  We got some twine and tied him to the reclining lawn chair he was in.  Then I yelled, "FIRE!"  It was hilarious.  It just so happened that a free lance writer for the Des Moines Register was walking by and observed the entire ordeal.  Our picture made the front of the Picture section of the Sunday paper that week.

I think the most fun I ever had included the many years we would play home run derby with a plastic ball and bat in the hog show ring.  More than once a security guard ran us out.  We were back at it in less than 10 minutes.  I also remember some Orvus in one of the rides by the midway, but I better not admit to it on a public forum.  The most fun I have now is taking the kids on that ride after the show.  There's an agent in the water now to prevent the problem from happening again. 

We got away with a lot more back when I showed, playing hockey with a skoal can and pig canes in the beef barn, to joy riding with the livestock offices golf cart on the midway.
Our kids played wiffle ball,  had water balloon fights, and hiked to the lagoon to fish. We show the last week of the fair and it can run between 7 to 11 days depending on where the 4th falls, on those long weeks it is hard to keep the kids occupied, 2 shows days and then sale day leaves a lot of down time. We organized a scavenger hunt for them one year, used the whole fair grounds, they had a blast stayed out of trouble for a few hours.

We did have a visit from the Department of Agriculture police one time: It seems a young man from a neighboring city high school, had been water balled, he was walking to the showers in his footy PJ's when someone water ballooned him. When he came back into the same area on his bike, looking for the person or persons who water ballooned him again. The officer asked if we found out who did it if we could make sure they did not do it again, he says this looking directly at the offending party, they got the message. We asked the culprits why, the simply stated, "He was wearing Footy PJ's what were we supposed to do".

I will say we had a great group of kids in our club and they all got along and helped each other with their projects, on show day you would find the beef kids helping the hog kids and visa versa with the beef. 

At one of the very first junior shows that I attended there was a long fire hose hooked up to the wall so kids didn't have to carry water buckets very far. The hose seemed like a good idea until one of the younger kids got ahold of it and eventually had everyone cornered in the far side of the barn to avoid being sprayed. When they finally convinced the kid to hand over the hose the organizers ended up having to postpone the show for 45 minutes to give everyone time to dry off their cattle and change into dry clothes. Being a laid back summer show everyone thought it was pretty hilarious (with the exception of the kid's parents, I still don't know how he managed to make it out of that one alive).

On the same topic of kids causing trouble at shows last year we were in the bleachers watching a show when we noticed some young kids collecting pop bottles and cans. We thought that it was really nice that they were helping clean up and commented on what good kids they were. The little boy started lining up the bottles and we said "wow, he's even counting the money he's going to get, what a smart little kid!". Before we could say anything else he stood behind his line of cans and bottles and started booting them one by one into the showring while the show was going on. Luckily all the animals in the ring were quiet but everyone sure laughed when we realized that those supposedly helpful little kids were actually big troublemakers!