Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
At the fair’s main gate, wasn't it strange not to see the late John Henry of the Colfax Rotary Club taking tickets?
Friday night's rodeo ran late, with an extended list of barrel racers, and Wylie and the Wild West was supposed to play at about 9 p.m.
It was past 9:30 p.m. and they would still have to bring out the flatbed stage and get everything ready. How long would it take?
After the last barrel racer, the Jones Truck & Implement semi rolled through the end gate, parked in the dirt just in front of the new grandstand, and fair volunteer Steve Larkin plugged in the power. Wylie plucked his guitar and started talking on a live mic.
It was all ready and the concert started in a minute.
The 4H/multipurpose building and its second year superintendent Mary Davidson, won the Washington State Fair Commission's special award ribbon, given every other year to an entity at each fair statewide. “The black and white,” said Paul Nemo, one of seven Washington State Fairs commissioners. “It carries what best represents what an agricultural fair is. It could be a barn, one exhibit, a booth, a superintendent. Zero criteria for it. That's why it's so coveted.”
At Rep. Joe Schmick's booth, how about his round-the-booth quiz of what arrived first in Whitman County? The first refrigerated boxcar or the first telephone? The first ferris wheel or the first “midway?”
While no ribbon-cutting took place for the new fair grandstand, County Commissioner Art Swannack nonetheless had a suggestion: just after the $1.4 million structure was dedicated by Judge Gary Libey and Fair Manager Janel Goebel, a bull could bust out of a gate and run through a ribbon. Perhaps he'd cut it with a horn.
How about the back entrances to the grandstand and the open space underneath, with picnic tables, formerly claimed by the scaffolding of the old bleachers?
What about young John Largent of Colfax Junior-Senior High School, sitting on stage Friday in a row of chairs for the hypnosis demonstration by Jerry Harris. The 7-8 junior high kids heard a suggestion that they were watching the funniest movie they'd ever seen, which then switched to the saddest.
“It's 'Titanic',” Harris said.
John Largent sat up, spread his arms out wide and looked to the horizon.
What about Sheriff's Posse member Barb Kinzer? Told two weeks before the fair she would not have the expected help parking cars by horseback and foot from the WSU Equestrian team, Kinzer got on the phone and rounded up a crew of volunteers, some called out of retirement, to deliver the cars into the straight lines.
How about the pig round-up crew, corraling hogs back into the chute from the arena with their bare “Palouse Empire Fair”- emblazoned wooden boards.
It wouldn't be the 2019 fair without a barrel rider in the dark, in the warm-up ground, alongside the highway, her name soon to be called, no light but from the stars, the glow of the new rodeo lights and her Samsung Galaxy Note in the palm of her hand to read a few texts.
How about the Steptoe Firemen's booth? A backup of burgers on the grill on Friday afternoon led to the offer of free pie for those who waited.
What about the food booth for the Colfax Eagles Aerie 2317, its chapter growing 12 percent in the past year, from 105 members to 118. As for sales, they almost ran out of hamburgers last year and brought more this year, and almost ran out again.
Sheep barn tradition: the sharpness of the blue corduroy and black denim and the sharpness of the judge.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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