LITTLE ROCK — We have always been county fair goers, although across the years we haven’t made it to every fair. Sometimes there is just too much other necessary activity going on for us to get there.
This year we went out to the Benton County Fair, somewhat dreading the heat, remembering how hot it was at last year’s fair;
but this time the evening turned out to be very pleasant. We arrived a little later in the day this time, right at supper time, bought a chicken dinner and lemonade, and really enjoyed relaxing, eating and watching the people coming and going.
I’m still trying to get used to the fair not being in Bentonville. I tend to visualize it at the traditional location at the south end of Main Street. Now it is located on Arkansas Hwy. 12 west at the northeast edge of Vaughn. There is obviously more space for everything at the new location, but forme, I’m still trying to get used to it. Actually, I can remember when the county fair was held mostly around the courthouse square in Bentonville, with booths and tents set up all around the square and at the street corners. The square was also a farmers’ marketplace during the summer, with farmers, orchardmen and gardeners selling wagon and truck loads of watermelons, peaches, apples and all kinds of produce from the gardens and truck patches. I was talking about this with Alva Johnson a few days ago, and Alva remembered that the Bentonville School Band would play from the courthouse steps, and the streets and the park in the middle of the square would be packedwith people.
When I was a young boy in school, I remember that the County Fair would designate a special Kids’ Day for the school kids. The school buses would pick us up like we were going for a school day, but then we would ride the buses over to Bentonville and attend the fair. Quite often our buses would join in the Fair Parade, with marching bands from Bentonville, Rogers, Siloam Springs and a few other schools that had bands in those days. Usually, there would be horses and riders from the riding clubs around the county, Boy Scouts marching, 4-H Club floats, fair queen contestants riding in convertibles and lots of festivity.
We school kids always spent quite a bit of time at the fair riding the rides on the midway, throwing baseballs at targets in the game booths, eating cotton candy and generally having fun with our friends. But Ialways liked to take in the cattle shows and judging, as well as to see the sheep, hogs and other livestock being shown. Many of the livestock exhibitors were farm kids like me. Even though we had dairy cattle, and pretty fine cows at that, I never got into showing any of our cows or calves at the fair. Looking back on it, I wish I had tried my hand at showing the animals. But, as it was, I enjoyed watching the others lead their animals around the ring and listening to the comments of the judges as they awarded the purple and blue and red and white ribbons. In the late 1940s and early 1950s we had a 4-H Club which met at our school, and I was pretty involved in it. I was even the president of it to start with. I knew next to nothing about being a presider, and the county agricultural agent had to tell me every thing to say and everything to bring up. I wasn’t very proud ofmy 4-H “presidenting,” but I really did enjoy the 4-H activities. I think I learned quite a lot about livestock farming through 4-H, and even eventually gained a few leadership skills. That part came hard for me.
The farm equipment dealers always had big displays at the county fair, and J.W. Jordan and I used to make the rounds of their big tents, collecting leaflets on tractors, mowers, hay balers and the like. I noticed this week that several dealers still show their tractors and equipment at the fair, but with not quite so prominent a display as used to be the case. I think every tractor I saw at the fair was equipped with a front end loader. Those loaders hadn’t come into fashion back in our day. In fact, back then it was still a new thing for a tractor to have a hydraulic system to lift plows and cultivators and mowers and other equipment.
I went to the fair expecting to see dairy cows and beef cows, young and old, but I was really surprised to see the huge number of goats being shown. I hadn’t realized that goats are such a prominent part of the farming scene in Benton County today. When I was a boy, goats were scarce, and sheep were rarer still.
Farming may not be quite as big an industry as it was in the earlier days, but the County Fair is a sign that for Benton County, livestock farming, gardening, truck patching and flower gardening are still very much alive and thriving. I’m glad to see it.
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Editor’s note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is an award-winning columnist, a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history. He is vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected] or call 621-1621.
Community, Pages 5 on 08/22/2012