Roughing It

Fair, the word brings back a lot of memories for me as well as many past 4-H and FFA members.

Fair is that special time of year when it seems to be all hurry up and wait for parents as well as all the kids. This is my first year of being a parent of a 4-Her, and now I totally understand how my parents must have felt.

I remember stories my dad used to tell us about how he and his brother and sister would pack up and head to town for fair. For those of you who don’t know my family or me, I am from Laramie Wyo. I grew up there and that’s where I spent most of my life. I spent many years on our families ranch north of Laramie. This isn’t just a quick hop, skip and a jump to town, by the way. No, it’s about a 90 mile drive one way, 42 miles of that drive is dirt road. Literally, out in the middle of nowhere, to head to Laramie, the biggest town in Albany County, every year at Fair time. Until my grandparents bought a house in town, the three kids would stay the week at a friends house. I can only imagine the stress.

My fair weeks in the beginning consisted of taking my two pigs to the fair grounds, Sunday afternoon, getting them checked in and into their stalls. Monday was weigh- in day and oh I was so nervous, hoping both of my pigs would make weight. Tuesday was the day to clip the pigs, giving them a nice pokey hair cut, getting them all washed and cleaned, which never really mattered anyway, because I would always be out washing them again Wednesday morning before the hog classes. Wednesday afternoon it was time to get ready to show. Thursday and Friday at this point weren’t too busy, until I decided I was going to take steers, as well as my pigs, then the whole game plan changed. I was out there all day, everyday, taking care of my animals, running around with friends and eating snow cones. Friday morning at 8 a.m. was the steer show, so needless to say it was a very early morning getting steers out to the wash racks, getting almost as wet as they were, then taking them back inside to blow dry them out, putting all that amazing smelling hair product (Zoom Bloom) in them then leaving them in the chute while I dried off and tried to make myself look presentable for the judges. After the steer show, in fact every year since I was eight, every Friday afternoon my dad would come get my sister and me and take us around to businesses to tell them how are animals did in market and showmanship class, then we would ask very nicely for them to come to the sale on Saturday and bid on our animals.

Saturday morning always seemed to come way too early. I remember being up and out washing the animals, changing out their bedding, and trying to get myself ready for the sale. At noon a buyers lunch was put on, with the sale to follow. I remember being so nervous, then I would go in the sale ring and everything was over with-in, seemed like just seconds of getting in there. I would take my animal back to their pins or tie sports and lay on them, hug, kiss, cry, knowing what was coming just after the sale was over. Seeing the trucks pull up was the worst feeling in the world. No matter how old I got, it never got any better.

Fair was so fun and I learned so much, even with the heartbreaking end, I wouldn’t trade all of the opportunities I had in 4-H and FFA for the world. From the wash rack water fights, my cousins bringing a slip and slide out and having at least half of the fair kids playing on it, to the long hot days, all of the life-long friends I have made to the thousands of tears I cried, 4-H is one of the best life- changing experiences anyone could ask for.

Growing up we never had a rodeo during Albany County’s Fair, they still don’t, because the rodeo is in the beginning of July in Laramie. Growing up how I did and where, traveling around in the summer to rodeo’s and ropings, watching my dad and many of his friends rope, I had the honor to meet and have at least one very small kind of bond with many of these great cowboys you got to watch this past weekend either in the Saturday or Sunday performance or the slack Sunday morning. It is true, once a part of this great rodeo family you are always a part of it. And for that I am very grateful. It’s such a great feeling being able to walk into the fair grounds, hunt for trailers and faces you know, being able to stop and say “Hey, how’s it going?” And of course “how is your dad doing?” And if even just for a minute that little “how you doing” helps remind me of the things a lot of people take for granted, and how lucky we are to be a part of this great agriculture community.

So as I, and a lot of other parents, have stressed out about this week, please remember, everything “Fair,” as well as, what these rodeo cowboys are about, is the next generation of agriculture.