Sixty years ago attending the Big Stone County Fair was an exciting event for me. Being a 4-H kid meant I would spend Thursday entering my exhibits in the 4-H building. Hopefully the paint was dry on the bird house I entered for my conservation project. The safety poster had probably been painstakingly completed the night before. No, I wasn’t a procrastinator. I was a perfectionist and slow besides! 🙂 Thursday night was long and sleep was difficult as one anticipated the Friday afternoon visit to the 4-H building to see what color of ribbons one’s exhibits had garnered. Blue was treasured while red and white not so much. One year I exhibited a pig and another year rabbits. That insured I would need to visit the fair every day because the animals needed to be fed, watered and receive fresh bedding. I never got tired of going to the fair and it was always the highlight of each summer.
Well this past week I relived those kid days at the fair. Only it was even better because I arrived each day at 11:00 am and left at 9:00 pm. As a kid I would have loved that because that would have meant I would have missed milking (by hand) the cows each evening. My exhibits had changed too. I displayed five books on a table covered with a yellow cloth. No ribbons were awarded either. Instead success was measured by how many fair goers thought enough of a book to buy one.
Sitting at a booth at the fair is an interesting experience. You would assume people would be staring at you. But I am always amazed how many people walk by and never even see you. I have been tempted to manufacture my own pea shooter and bounce a couple peas off the back of their head to get their attention. But noting the size of some of those fair goers I’ve decided it wouldn’t be a wise marketing scheme.
Often the success of your sales at the fair depends on the neighboring booths. Experience has taught me to never be in a booth next to the Tupper Ware Lady! Women gather around the booth, visiting and shopping, as only women can do. Soon the crowd is so big they are blocking my booth and nobody sees me for the rest of the fair. This weekend the Tupper Ware Lady was not present but next door was a very delightful young lady name Chelsie selling “smells”. It was all new to me but not to the many ladies who crowded around her booth all four days of the fair. I have forgiven Chelsie because as the fair ended on Sunday she came over and bought two books for her cute little daughter. No hard feelings there! 🙂
Of course if was not ‘all work and no play’ at the fair. We enjoyed fair food all four days. Kathie and I wandered around the 4-H exhibit hall on Thursday and viewed 4-Her’s handiwork. (All the birdhouses had dry paint I noted.) The Kingery Family performed on the free stage one of the evenings and we decided to take it in. The Kingery Family consists of two parents and eight children singing beautiful harmony and playing fiddles, banjos, guitars, harmonica, and a bass fiddle. Mother Nature added to the harmony about half way through the act as rain began to fall…..heavy rain! The stage was in a shelter with a tin roof so the falling rain added a ‘roar’ as background sound. An occasional hailstone also added to the percussion.
The fair provided opportunities to meet old friends and make new ones. Tom, a neighboring “boother”, and I had some great visits during the four days. But all fairs must come to an end and actually after four days I was ready for it. We were all packed up and ready to back out of our parking spot when the final book sale took place. It was unusual to say the least. As I looked in the mirror and began backing up I see a young lady frantically running up behind us waving something in her hand. I rolled my window down and she screamed is it too late to get a book? That’s when I see she is waving a $10 bill in her hand. So I coolly respond, “Certainly, but it will cost you $100!” then of course I quickly smiled. She enjoyed my sense of humor……at least she didn’t hit me!
So I exited the vehicle, opened the tailgate of my Jeep and got her a “Children In The Outdoors, Vol. III”. It was the final sale of the weekend. But it gave me an idea for my next marketing scheme when it comes time to sell books again. I think I may just sit in the parking lot and let them find me! 🙂
Until next time.
