This has been the week of the annual Murray County Fair.
We’ve been to many county fairs over the years. This week we thought we’d talk about some of the changes and memorable events which have happened through the years.
First, this year is the first year the fair has run for 6 days. When we were little it was three days. (entry, judging, and conclusion).
Our family has brought in many exhibits generally to compete for prizes. Once the judging was done then we would go through the exhibits to see what the winner had that we didn’t.
Many years were remembered for some special reason. One year a 4-Her had a heifer which was giving birth. Problems came and the vet had to be called. He assisted in the calf birth. No extra charge for spectators. It made the Worthington newspaper too. Since then I think there has been a reserved spot near the livestock barns for the Vet truck if needed.
Also, near the grandstand a barn was built which housed family pets. One time it was a mother dog with her pups. A sign was displayed telling visitors to keep quiet and do not disturb the dog. I remember the look of the dog’s face. She was feeding her brood and guarding them too.
In the exhibits one year one of the commercial buildings had the local REA line truck along with some linemen. About the time we visited - the wiring on the roof started to arc. The linemen got their flashlight out and maybe got the line truck to hoist a lineman up to fix the problem. No extra charge for spectators. We’ve had some replacement and some new buildings too. Always a nice improvement. Also some buildings are now available for year-round use.
In old times there were exhibits from the farm tractor and equipment dealers. This continued for many years. Father always has to tour that area to see what was new.
This continued until one year overnight some parts of the equipment disappeared. The dealers took home their machinery promptly and refused to being anything in future years. The fair board tried to promise that the machinery area would have lights which would be on all nights with a guard also all nights.
These are just some of our memories of past Murray County Fairs.
Now back to our gardening.
Until next week.
