Fair days

If ever there were two more unlikely people to join a club let alone start one it was me and Hannah Sterbenz.

We laughed at this turn of events—at odds with our visions of our independent selves. Hannah even acquired a gavel (for our more raucous meetings).

So we started a 4-H club for kids which, despite its many ups and downs, is now in its fourth year.

4-H is the statewide youth development program of Cornell Cooperative Extension that connects the resources of Cornell University to young people. The commonly seen 4-H emblem is of a green four-leaf clover with a white “H” on each leaf. The “H”s stand for “Head,” “Heart,” “Hands” and “Health.”

I’ve always liked 4-H, since girls and boys get to participate together—plus you don’t need a uniform.

Both Hannah and I were in 4-H as kids. I vividly remember the comic battle that ensued when my father “de-horned” Hannah’s (rather large) 4-H calves. This was an obligatory procedure prior to entry to the Delaware County Fair in Walton, and the cows should’ve had this done when they were younger. It was a tussle, with my father rolling over and under the calves with the cauterizing iron. In the end the calves went horn-less but it was close.

Although I never showed animals myself, I did complete a number of 4-H plant and entomology projects and I remember the fair as the highlight of the summer.

Like most farm families, we never went on a vacation, but my aunt took me every day to the week-long fair and I remember it as an occasion of freedom—or at least of being old enough to walk around by myself buying snow cones and shell necklaces, watching the people, discovering the midway.

This past week my kids and club members entered their projects in the Delaware County Fair along with 4-Hers from across the county. We exhibited photos, a birdhouse, a wildflower identification book, a terrarium, a stepping stone and some assorted animals. My daughter presented a public demonstration on making lemonade.

As our communities become less rural, less agricultural, 4-H has expanded with a large variety of projects. There are 4-H programs throughout the state, including New York City.

Still, some clubs specialize in sheep, hogs, or beef cattle and others in gardening or spinning.

Last year we returned home from the fair with three goldfish in a plastic bag, and this year my daughter got a silky white and brown rabbit (now known as “Mashed Potato and Gravy”). Maybe she can show her at next year’s fair. I am not up to the enormous work of cows or pigs.

The summer and season of fairs is waning. “The Little Worlds Fair,” Sullivan County’s annual fair in Grahamsville coincided this year with the celebration of the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. Wayne County’s fair, which always attracts thousands of people, concluded earlier this month.

You can still go to the New York State Fair in Syracuse. This year the fair will be held from August 27 to September 7. If you don’t return home with a bunny, you can at least try for a goldfish. You know you need a few more goldfish…

- Kristin Barron