I had originally wrote this on FB on sunday the 23rd, but it bears stating here as my personal experience. The last 10 days were torture for me knowing the usual bustling city during Fair week is just a memory and the property was a ghost town. I personally went over to the fairgrounds on an afternoon that traditionally would have been early set up for PGAM and instead I found a heart-wrenching empty property, the only thing happening was two guys on ride-on mowers cutting tall grass. Luckily though for the kids in the Dairy or Beef clubs, they were able to have modified youth shows one weekend and a online sale for the animals.
My folks and I, we raise Guernsey cattle at our orchard here in the outer DC suburbs. Anyways my point is that for the last 18 years starting in 2002, I would spend the 3rd week of August exhibiting several Guernsey heifers or cows at the Montgomery County Fair in Gaithersburg, MD. From 02-2013, I was a 4-H exhibitor and also participated in the Open show earlier in the week (Tuesday afternoon), along with several tries at showmanship ( early Thursday afternoon) and then the actual 4-H show that would go from 2 until 7 pm, and then sometimes I would end up with a champion meaning that I'd be in the sought after Dairy Supreme Champion show from 8-10:30 at night under the spotlights of the cattle pavilion. Those were some of my greatest memories of my showing career over the years. There was at least once where we ended up taking about 15 cows. Lets just say that left almost no time to enjoy the fair at all, so these days we only bring 4 cows to show and also for the Milk-It demonstrations my father has been hosting for the past decade as a 4-H fundraiser via donations where I and other 4-H kids or alumni teach folks how to milk a cow by hand. I tell people that if it wasn't for the fair, i'd probably be a completely different person as being able to go relax with friends by riding the midway rides all those years ago and then catching glimpses of the midway setting up while coming in and out with my dad in our truck & trailer bringing supplies to the barn at the fairgrounds to "Move In" in my 4-H Days, I used to sleep in the barn next to stinky cows, to the sounds of fans roaring above in the rafters, and not even 200' away, the constant rumble and the roar about every 15 minutes from the freight trains on the CSX Brunswick mainline, that always took some getting used to the first night or two. This is ultimately what got me into being the carnival buff I am today. Pictures may be worth a thousand words, but memories are worth a million in my book, and are something you're always going to be remembering and someday will tell stories about to kiddos. That is how I see it as a livestock kid and exhibitor. This fair is engraved as a yearly tradition after 70 years, dating back to 1949. Although yes in my 4-H years, I did show at MD state fair, and then having been at the All American Dairy Show in the Junior Division ( U-21) at Pennsylvania's Farm Show Complex in September, and twice to the North American International Livestock Expo to exhibit in November held at the Kentucky State Fairgrounds.
Edited by user
Friday, August 28, 2020 10:05:08 PM
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