County Fair - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

County Fair

Since this year’s Shelby County Fair was unfortunately cancelled due to the virus, here’s an update on one of my first blog posts on the fair from August, 2015. I’m amazed how small the fair looks in the aerial photo compared to my memory as a kid!

It’s late summer and County Fair season. So many memories come to mind about the fairs while growing up, from the rides, cotton candy, livestock displays and midway games. Although I never won anything like a stuffed animal for a girl, it was fun and exciting to give it a go, especially when I was rewarded with a kiss behind the livestock barn for trying (no, they weren’t carnies!).

Many of my friends showed their livestock at the fair, so we literally stayed on the grounds for the entire week, sleeping on straw bales for a couple hours a night after a raucous day at the fair.

The Deloye’s always had the winning Holsteins, the Pleiman’s the best Ayrshires and the Joslin’s the top beef cattle and sheep. Here are some excerpts from the archives of the Sidney Daily News highlighting some of their accomplishments:

And during the ’63 fair, I distinctly recall walking from the fairgrounds downtown to the theater to see the movie Cleopatra staring Elizabeth Taylor! Memorable indeed for this budding teenager!

The rides at the fair were the best; in fact, a Guinness Book of Records for riding a ferris wheel was set during the 1964 fair.

A 15 year old kid named Chuck Rogers from Botkins rode the ferris wheel for 25 straight hours. Then low and behold, the very next week, a 16 year old Sidney girl named Patty Jones reset the record riding 40 hours at the Auglaise County Fair. No, I didn’t remember those names but did recall the event. Google helped me find the details from a Tuscaloosa newspaper article, as the story went “viral” in it’s day! And as shown in the photo below, there’s a museum in Hamtramck, Michigan that just might have a part of that old record-setting ferris wheel displayed.

Mom & Dad would always work at the Farm Bureau tent at the fair, as they were members of that organization dedicated to improving agricultural methods.

The neighbors surrounding our farm were all member of the same Farm Bureau Council, and several times a year, they would get together as couples to share farming best practices for an hour or so, then resort to playing cards for the rest of the night. The host couple would always pick up a jug of beer for the evening, plus they’d enjoy some sandwiches before the evening was over.

My brother and I had the bedroom right above the living room where the cards were played. With our bedroom heated indirectly through a vent on the living room ceiling (obviously not much heat made it to our room), we could readily hear every conversation going on below as if we were right in the room. At times, we could hardly contain our laughter to keep the grown-ups below from hearing us.

With the demise of the fair this year, my sister (pictured above with her daughter) couldn't show her prize-winning flowers like documented in this 2019 blogpost. But no doubt the flowers from her garden are going to good use in beautiful bouquets for family, friends and neighbors. She’s a blue ribbon winner in my book, Shelby County fair or not.

~~~~~~~~

Receive a weekly email whenever there is a new blog post. Just enter your email address in the designated spot below the blog and follow instructions to set up the notification.