Next week is the Warren County Fair. I have been involved with it for a long time. When my children were young, they showed dairy animals. It was a lot of work, but the experience was worth it. There were chores to be done early in the morning to get the animals ready for the show. My children were quite young at the time thet they showed. It was up to mom to help. Never in my marriage agreement did I promise to trim tails and whiten hooves!

When they were in high school I worked in the ice cream booth because they were members of the Eisenhower marching band. I always took a day as the chairman.

Then my daughter was chosen as the first Warren County Fair Queen. We were not camping there at the time so she used my sister-in-law’s camper to change her clothes. At that time the expected her to dress up including wearing heels. Incidentally, she ruined a pair of shoes that week.

That fall I was elected to the Fair Board of Directors. That began my more than nineteen years of doing the advertising for the fair. At first I just did the newspapers but when someone moved, I took over the radio and television advertising. My reasoning was I could not ask someone to do what I did not even know what to do.

I streamlined things creating one camera ready ad for the newspapers. I gave the radio and television advertisers one week to call when I would be in the office to commit advertising dollars.

The year I took that over I was changing grade level where I taught and my daughter was getting married so I was busy. It worked so well that I kept doing things that way.

My husband became a photographer for the fair taking shots that no one else was able to take. He climbed the catwalk in the old Cornplanter Pavilion to get good shots during the animal shots.

When he became ill, I continued to work for the fair enjoying even that last year with him. We had the smallest camper, but it was sold wood inside. Although it was tiny it really held a lot of stuff. We did not use the bathroom. It was so tiny you could sit on the toilet, clean your teeth, and shower at the same time. This the reason we did nto use it.

The fair was always fun. I camped the whole week or should I say every day but Monday. I stayed home that day so that I was available for those last-minute questions. By the time the fair came around my work was done except for getting people to do interviews over the radio and running the Media Luncheon.

I do not regret all the time I spent doing things for the fair. I sold more than 2000 concert tickets if we sold out. That meant that I sold more tickets than Chautauqua Institution does for its shows.

I got to work backstage and personally greeted the stars that entertained. I did interview with a number of them. I remember Holly Dunn was doing her dishes when she answered questions for me.

The food at the fair is popular. People look forward to things being the same. We used to have a sub booth run by a church group. People loved those. Then, there was the fish fry. That was a popular dinner. The Grange served homemade pies which drew in many people. 4-H served barbeque chicken and chicken and biscuits. Both of these groups also served breakfast.

After I left the board I filled in where they needed help working in the track food booth and selling tickets for a raffle. I also got up to help with the breakfast service at the fair’s booth.

By retiring from the board, I was able to see my grandchildren when they showed calves and participated in various activities. By the time Don and I were married I was glad I no longer had responsibilities.

I will never forget 2020 – the year there was no fair. That was a sad thing but with COVID there was no choice.

I wish the fair well as they open this year. Many things have changed. We went from a grounds that was mud each time it rained to a paved and easily to get around venue.

Ann Swanson writes from her home in Russell, Pa. Contact her at hickoryheights1@verizon.net.