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County Fair or late summer carnival?
To the editor:
Last Friday night, my family and I went to the Mississippi County Fair. Or should I say, the late summer carnival?
I was very disappointed in what we saw for exhibits (quantity not quality). My daughter had entered an exhibit, so we were looking forward to seeing all of them. It seems that the exhibits have been dwindling for the past 20 years that I have lived in this county. Half of the display cases were empty, and of the exhibits we did see, it appeared that there were a few individuals that took advantage of the prize money being offered. I saw a few names that entered just about every category they could. Good for them, because they had very minimal competition if any at all in some categories.
After leaving the exhibit building, we came to the petting zoo and spent a few minutes there, only to realize after the petting that there was no hand-washing station, so we had to go back to the exhibit building to use the bathrooms (which need some work/cleaning themselves) to wash our hands.
Kids got the armbands and we started our trek around the rides, only to be greeted by a number of toothless carnies, men and women most of whom all had cigarettes dangling from their lips. I don't guess the fairgrounds count as being part of the parks, because there was no enforcement of the "zero tolerance on tobacco in parks" policy. But don't you think there should be? (I sure saw plenty of law enforcement there.) There were a lot of kids there to influence, but maybe it was a good thing for them to see, because when my son asked me why they looked so rough, I told him it was years of smoking, personal hygiene and just not taking care of themselves.
I was invited last year to visit the Dyer County Fair just across the river. If you have never been to another fair, you would think this was a state fair, compared to the Mississippi County Fair. The property was at least 20 times more in acreage, if not more. It was clean, with more activities, such as high school FFA livestock shows, world class sanctioned tractor/truck pulls, concerts, beauty contests, how-to clinics, nightly money giveaways ($1,000 every night), a car giveaway, etc. So it got me thinking and researching. According to the U.S. Census, the 2011 population estimate for Mississippi County is 45,966 and the estimate for Dyer County is 38,192, a difference of 7,774. You would think it would be the other way around after visiting both fairs.
Why can't we have a decent county fair? Is it the location? Is it PBJ Happee Days Shows Inc.? Is it a lack of community interest? Is it the county fair association's fault? I don't know, but to me, it seems that a county fair in Mississippi County, Ark., is becoming a thing of the past. I just wonder, if we did not have a fair next year would anyone really care? I mean, are county fairs becoming a thing of past tradition in this state?
I challenge anyone who has anything to do with the fair to visit dyercofair.com or even better, go the the Dyer County Fair in Dyersburg Sept. 3-8 and bring back ideas to incorporate to the Mississippi County Fair.