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Fair to say, thousands enjoy 85th
Farmers, 4-Hers show off livestock while others ride, gorge, play, watch
Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photos by GARY SMITH
Clockwise from left, Haley Summers, Tyler Windsor, Riley Elder and Macie Summer with Jared Windsor in the middle peer through holes at an exhibit at the fair. For more fair photos, go to www.SoMdNews.com and click on ‘‘We Spotted.”
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Everywhere the aroma of a delightful mix of foods, including funnel cakes, cotton candy, popcorn, hot dogs, hamburgers, crabcakes and barbecued beef and chicken wafts through the air. Diets and discipline are forgotten for a while as kids and adults dig into their favorite fair food.
Laughter, old-fashioned banjo music and the squeals of kids sweeping high into the air and dropping back down on a variety of amusement park rides mingle with the sounds of farm animals and friendly chatter.
Friday was kids’ day at the 85th annual Charles County Fair that was pulled together by hundreds of volunteers and the fairgrounds near La Plata was already packed early in the morning as school-age children and their parents swept through the gates to enjoy a day filled with old-time fun. Kids who attend Charles County schools did not have to pay admission.
Cloudy skies and a few sprinkles of rain didn’t interrupt the activities, including the carving of a caricature of a tiger for T.C. Martin Elementary School in Bryantown by members of the Southern Maryland Woodcarvers and Southern Maryland Carousel Group.
The elementary school raised $6,000 to have the figure carved and painted, said Burkey Boggs, president of the carousel group. Once it is finished, the figure will join 48 other carved animals and two chariots on the group’s carousel that will be placed in Laurel Springs Park in La Plata.
The group is also carving a dolphin for Mary H. Matula Elementary School in La Plata, Boggs said, adding that working on the carousel figures at the fair is a good way to draw more people into the project that began a couple of years ago.
‘‘It shows people what we’re doing so that we can get the community involved in the project,” he said while taking a break from carving the tiger out of a block of basswood.
Indian Head resident George Dyson manned the museum that has been set up in the W. Mitchell Digges building since 1974. The building is filled with antique farming and blacksmith implements, kitchen ware, a horse harness, a still, a honey maker and a wagon that is more than 110 years old that used to deliver groceries to families in Charles County.
All of the items were donated to the museum by county residents, Dyson said.
‘‘The museum has all of the typical equipment that you would find in a farm barn,” he said.
Dyson constantly played a DVD featuring the Robey family in White Plains working the earth to grow tobacco which was once the economic mainstay in Southern Maryland.
‘‘At one time, 70 million pounds of tobacco were raised in Southern Maryland,” he said, adding that he wants to educate both children and adults about the crop’s significance to Maryland’s history.
The Naval Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technology Division, including the Navy’s diving program demonstration tank, was set up to highlight some of what the Navy does at the Stump Neck Annex in Indian Head.
Kids lined up to play tic-tac-toe with a Navy diver who was submerged in a tank of water.
Other kids crowded around several robots that were operated by Dave Frye, a retired Navy senior chief petty officer who is now employed at the robotics training and support facility at Stump Neck.
‘‘The kids like to be chased by the robots,” he said. ‘‘There are some areas at the annex that you can’t bring kids to see so this gives parents a chance to bring their kids out and show them what we do.”
Zack Osburne, 8, of Indian Head enjoyed interacting with the robots.
‘‘It’s funny; it’s trying to catch me,” he said.
Osburne’s mom, Terri Osburne, said she was enjoying spending the day with her son.
‘‘I just wanted to come out and have fun and enjoy the weather,” she said.
Several parents and their children were visiting vendors set up inside some of the buildings on the fairgrounds to escape a few raindrops that sporadically fell for awhile, including Ronda Davis and her son, Ryan, 4.
‘‘I come to the fair every year,” she said. ‘‘My son likes to come for the rides and other entertainment.”
‘‘The kids enjoy it, and it’s lots of fun,” added White Plains resident Cheryl Zabiegalski.
Vendor Gary Nelson of Silver Mountain jewelry in Richmond, Va., tried his hand at selling sterling silver bracelets, necklaces, charms and earrings for the first time at the county fair.
‘‘I do fairs every weekend,” he said. ‘‘My schedule was open so I thought I would give this a shot. If the weather holds it’s going to be a nice fair.”
Upper Marlboro resident Stevi Cottrell carefully maneuvered her brood of youngsters through the livestock building.
‘‘We come every year,” she said. ‘‘It’s nice to have a day when the kids can get in free, especially when you have a lot of them. This gives them a good opportunity to see livestock up close. Usually, we only see them from the road.”
‘‘We come to the fair every year; we never miss it,” said Renee Gaffe of Faulkner as she and her daughters, Kathryn, 9, and Hannah, 6, slowly made their way through the livestock building. ‘‘It’s fun and educational for the kids. It also gives the kids an opportunity to create things.”
There were too many activities going on Friday to take note of them all, but among the entertainment activities were stilt walker Richard Haines, the notorious pig races, the Bunky & Blinky clown show, Ray Owen performing ‘‘Hats Off to America” and other favorites like Mike Shwedick’s Reptile World, Masters of the Chainsaw wood sculpting and a kids’ tractor pull.
There were also plenty of agricultural displays and activities going on, including cow milking demonstrations, a pet show and the 4-H livestock show and poultry and rabbit judging contests.
A tableful of kids forgot about televisions, radios, cell phones, iPods and computers to gather around a picnic table to hammer away at blocks of wood during a woodworking workshop sponsored by Home Depot and the Charles County Forestry Board. The kids got kits to make birdhouses, football goals, planter boxes and fire trucks.
‘‘They’re making something that is there’s to keep,” said Catherine Johnson, a home services representative from Home Depot in Waldorf. ‘‘We do this once a month at the store.”
White Plains resident Diane Dye said that everyone should spend a day at the fair.
‘‘I was born and raised in Charles County and this is just something that we do every year,” she said.
‘‘It’s a tradition.”
