Susan Writes

            You have only three more days, well four, counting today, to take in the very best county fair in Tennessee.  The Putnam County Agricultural and Industrial Fair was awarded the Champion of Champions trophy by the Tennessee Association of Fairs on January 20, 2022, and board members have worked diligently to make this year’s fair even better. 

Our fair isn’t a Johnny-come-lately event.  Chickens & Cows & Pigs, Oh My!, the theme of this year’s fair, is the 96^th Putnam County Fair.  All these years, it’s been presented, ‘put on’ as my granny would say, by volunteers – 539 volunteers this year, according to John Allen, Fair Board President. 

            When I heard that ‘exhibit fair watchers’ were needed, I signed up.  As I write this column, I’m sitting under the South grandstand where the produce and crops and photographs are displayed and I’m taken back to being a kid.  I’ve pulled suckers from knee-high corn plants and driven a tractor that pulled a wagon in a hayfield and dug potatoes and picked enough green beans to fill quart jar for Mom to can.

             My job tonight is to remind people not to touch the items that have been entered for competition.  A little tyke ducked under the single-chain barrier and rubbed both hands over a long-shaped watermelon, but before I even stood, his mother had corralled him.  Maybe it was the big blue “Best of Show” ribbon on the watermelon that was enticing.

            I’m impressed by the baskets of vegetables that are works of art entered as Garden Displays.  Professional and amateur photographers entered pictures in many categories and I applauded with a child’s family when he announced, “I got a blue ribbon!”   He’ll also be happy when he picks up his first-place prize money on Sunday.

            My watcher seat looks out to the Master Gardeners’ exhibit, a unique and beautiful presentation of plants, both flowering and non-flowering. And I’m close to the food booths and cotton candy and the midway where the Ferris wheel stops only long enough to unload and load.

If I’d been assigned to the Cultural Arts Building, I’d be surrounded by flower arrangements, potted plants, hand and machine-stitched clothing, needlework, quilts of all sizes, knitted items, paintings, and crafts made of wood and leather.  And food: canned fruit, jelly, pickles, cakes, cookies, candy, and pies.  (Granted, all probably looked more appetizing on entry day.)

Maybe you think the fair isn’t something you’d like – think again.  It’s the best $5 you’ll spend to appreciate life here in Putnam County, according to the man I met tonight who moved here from San Diego, California, six months ago. 

The fair gates open at 4:00.  Take in the exhibits, eat supper at a food booth, and shop at the country store.  For an additional cost, you can ride the Ferris wheel. Go on the night of your favorite event: a horse show, tractor pull, or demolition derby.  The fair comes only once a year!

Get more information at https://putnamcountyfair.org. 

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My calendar is marked. F A I R! A line connects the dates Thursday, August 1 thru Saturday, August 10.

            The Putnam County Fair’s theme is “Come Back to the Barnyard….” That takes me to my childhood and my family’s barn hayloft where a girlfriend and I played. Rectangular hay bales tied with grass string were perfect for dividing the loft into rooms.  We stacked bales to make a kitchen table and one bale became a chair or couch.  Two bales side-by-side made a bed.  Barn kittens, wrapped in old towels, were our babies. We played house all morning. 

            I headed to that barn loft when the skies darken and clouds gathered.  I loved hearing the rain hit the tin roof and if I had my book, whatever I was reading, I’d settle into a corner and hope the rain didn’t stop before I’d read the last page.

            I didn’t grow up on a working farm, but even those of us who lived a mile from the Pickett County courthouse had a milk cow, pigs, chickens, and a horse or two.  One sow refused to nurse her newborn babies.  On a cold night while my parents played cards at their friends’ house, my older brother and I put the piglets in a cardboard box and carried them to our house.  The nipple of an animal feeding bottle was too big for the piglets’ tiny mouths, but my doll’s bottle was just the right size.  By the time our parents got home, the piglets were sound asleep and so were my brother and I, on the floor beside the box. (There’s a story about the hardwood floor under the box, but that’s for another day.)

            Grannie raised chickens.  Tiny fluff balls grew into hens and laid eggs.  Grannie could ease her hand under a sitting hen to gather eggs and the hen never moved.  I couldn’t.  I was sure the hen would peck me.

            When my grandfather’s cow birthed twin calves, Mom checked me out of school.  Inside Papa’s barn, one calf stood on wobbly legs.  I’d watched puppies be born, but the birth of more than one calf was rare – worth missing the last hour of school.  Dad, Papa, and the cow worked hard to birth the second calf. 

            The Putnam County Fair offers a glimpse of farm life.  A Petting Zoo: horses, dairy cows, sheep, goats, chickens, geese and more.  And live demonstrations: blacksmithing, broom making, spinning, weaving, soap making, and children’s games. As stated in the Fair booklet, the Come Back to the Fair exhibit will “reach back to our roots and recall and recreate the farm barnyard – the safe place we played as children.”  A safe place to play and learn about life.

            My Grands may never play in a barn loft or marvel at the birth of twin calves or gather eggs, but at the fair they can smell hay and stroke a calf’s nose and see chickens sitting on their nests.  

            Take your family and check out farm life, eat a burger and cotton candy, walk through the exhibits and ride the ferris wheel.  I’ll see you there! ####

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