ITS COUNTY FAIR TIME

                      This is the time of year ,when I was growing up in Michigan we would start thinking about getting ready for the fair . All year through 4-H we would go to our meetings , and work on our projects all for this month . We would sit down at the dinning room table and go over the entry forms and decide what areas we would enter in , some were predetermined by what we already worked on , others depended on what we could come up with . There were the cooking , gardening and other things that depended on what we were into at the time .
                      This was the one thing we would look forward to all year . We would spend very little time on the midway , all our time was spent at the exhibition barns . All the animals , crafts , baked goods , and all the shows were in this area . We would do our public speaking , show our animals and anything else before the judges . It would take all week for them to go through all the barns .
                     The other things that kept us busy were the stage shows , tractor pulls and demolition derby's . I have not been to a tractor pull or a demolition derby in so many years ,it don’t make sense . I think my mom had just as much fun with the fair as we did .  She would sit down and go through the books and application with us to find things we could enter . One year my brother raised hogs for the fair . I don’t remember how well he did with them ,but I do remember the many cold winter mourning’s we had to go out and chase the hogs back into there pen . It mighty good I had my dog Marmaduke  , she was good at herding them back in the pens . In most cases she would already have them rounded up and where they belong . She would be standing guard at the hole in the fence making sure they would not come back out when we would finally get there . One thing she would not go into the pens with the hogs , she knew where she belonged and where they did .
                      Some how during the fair We got our chores done and squeezed in two practices a day for football . Yes during my youth we were busy ,4-H ,Scouts ,Order of the Arrow , sports ,school and camping trips . The camping trips , the weather did not matter , it could be snowing , a rain storm or what ever . It was the ones where the weather was far from perfect , that we enjoyed the most . Of course we were cold and wet but we muddled through . Oh there I go again going off in a tangent as I some times do .
                    Back to the subject at hand , the county fair . I have not been to one in so many years ; I do not know if they are still the same . Where I live now is not a agricultural area . The county area do not have many farms , it mostly sub-divisions and city . So the county fair here probably just the usual carnival rides and games . Do not forget the food stands with the average carnival fare . One of these day I will try to make back to the county fair I remember . Right now all I have of them is the memories of running around them with my friends and family . I guess that will have to do for now . We just have cherish the time that we had . When were young we did not think of that all that would come to pass and that one day we would sit back an remember .