County Fair Time

Jill's very first year of 4-H foods judging

Today is the first day of the Stafford County Fair. Even though I haven't had 4-Hers at my house for the past seven years, I'm still a superintendent for 4-H Foods and Nutrition. Yesterday, I spent part of the day setting up for the judging and calling workers.

She looks scared to death to talk to the judge. The innate talker finally won out in subsequent 4-H years! I also remember that cake. It was entered in a microwave division. It wasn't that good, but we didn't know much at the time. There's no microwave class at the 2013 Stafford County Fair. That's a good thing!

This is the third year we're doing the judging in a nearby church basement, which certainly helps combat the heat on the fairgrounds (until I need to set up the displays and get everything organized there).

Randy will help weigh in pigs and then will help during the swine judging on Thursday morning. So, even though this is the seventh year we are "4-Her-less," we still find small ways to help out. (True confessions: We are definitely not as involved as we once were. We retired after a dozen years as community leaders when Brent graduated. And I gave up the local foods leader job last year after beginning when Jill was a young 4-Her.)

Still, why do we (and a bunch of other 4-Her-less people) continue to show up to work? It's because of what 4-H did for me and my family.

A 4-H talk circa 1973 or so

Both Randy and I are 4-H veterans, he in Stafford County and me in Pratt County. (I'm sad that the two fairs are the same week this summer, so I won't make it to my home fair this year.)

Randy in 1967, a 5th grader and his first year in Stafford County 4-H with his first 4-H steer.

Jill and Brent both joined 4-H as soon as they were old enough. I look at that photo of Jill with her first-year cake (the photos at the top of this post), and I think about how much she (and I) grew and learned. She went from that uneasy first-year 4-Her to a confident leader.

She chose her profession - a registered dietitian - at least in part because of 4-H foods and nutrition.

Randy continues to advise people on their bucket calf and beef projects (when asked) for much the same reason. Our kids learned so much through that project. And their livestock premium auctions proceeds also helped them pay some of their college expenses.

They both learned that it takes perseverance. You sometimes have to dig in your heels to get things accomplished. There's no better lesson on that than trying to break a bucket calf to lead.

4-H is a powerful youth program:

Young people in 4-H are three times more likely to contribute to their communities than youth not participating in 4-H. 4-Hers all across the nation are empowered to take on the leading issues of their towns, counties and states and make a lasting difference. ... 4-H youth get the hands-on, real-world experience they need to become leaders and to make positive differences in their communities.

"The 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development"

 from Tufts University 

I, too, have case study after case study to back it up. My research isn't done in the hallowed halls of a university like Tufts. It's more in the sweat produced by working side-by-side with 4-Hers, parents and other volunteers on a hot day in July.

Brent's final year of 4-H - 2006

I'll have even more real-life examples when the last of the exhibits comes down Saturday evening. Good luck 4-Hers, parents and volunteers! And, if you're in the neighborhood, stop by the Stafford County Fairgrounds on North Main in Stafford, Wednesday through Saturday, and be part of the fair!

This post is revised from the archives.

Library Love

Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.

Maya Angelou

Well, I hope Maya is right. I'm not sure she was talking about a book about Taylor Swift.


Maybe a book by Jonathan Swift, the author of Gulliver's Travels. (Their hair is similar, don't you think?)


But a book about a teenybopper country and pop icon? That might be a stretch.

Still, noted American autobiographer and poet Maya Angelou says "any book" so we'll hope my book fair purchase for my adopted "grandchild" helps develop that habit of reading.

I spent part of my day in the Stafford Schools library yesterday where I was a volunteer for Grandparent Day. If a real grandparent or family member wasn't there to spend time with a student, we volunteers stepped in to listen to them read, share a cookie and visit the book fair.

It is never a hardship to spend my day surrounded by books or children. And I got a dose of both.

Yes, it was Valentine's Day, but my first grade charge, Laura, chose to read a Christmas book. And that was just fine with me.

But I will have you know that I am not a pushover in this grandparenting thing. On our visit to the school book fair, Laura was enticed by a basketball pen and a calculator that looked like a Hershey bar and other junk ... I mean lovely merchandise.

I was willing to fork over a little dough for a book. But I wasn't springing for the equivalent of a prize found in a McDonald's Happy Meal.

I led her over to the Easy Readers. I had my eye on these titles:


She had her eye on all things teenybopper.

"It's not exactly Tip and Mitten, is it?" my friend, Debbie, lamented as she perused books with her real-life grandson.

Nope. It's not Dick and Jane either.

Laura had gotten the book about Justin Bieber on a previous trip to the book fair. So we added to her library of biographies of people who haven't been on this planet for a quarter of a century.

It's better than an exploding pen, isn't it?

My next charge was third grader, Alex, who read to me from the book, Bad Kitty Gets a Bath.

I told him that my husband would have loved that book since we have a whole farmyard full of cats. We have not, however, tried to bathe any of them, which is a good thing, according to the book.

Alex chose a science book from the book fair. And, I have to admit, it wasn't so hard to part with my cash for that book selection.

But whether it's a science book or even a book about Taylor Swift, I hope my adopted grandchildren develop a love of reading. When I was a third grader - just like Alex - I read 166 books. I have the certificate to prove it.

To celebrate my reading achievement, I got a book called Best Friend from my teacher, Mrs. Hemphill.

Other award books I got during my grade school years were Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses and a collection of Aesop's Fables. One summer, I read the most books in the summer reading program at the Pratt Public Library and got to attend the Peace Treaty at Medicine Lodge.

Reading was my favorite pastime then ... and now.

Let's just say I didn't collect any math awards.