Fair Brings Back Memories

Each year, when fair time approaches, Luella Dore, Sidney, recalls good times, good friends and a lot of exciting activity. Dore served as Richland County Fair culinary division superintendent for 17 years and loved every moment she spent performing her duties.

“I started as superintendent in 1982,” she recalls. “They wanted someone for this position who was involved with 4-H and who knew food. My kids were in the Hay Creek Busy Bees 4-H Club and both my husband and I were heavily involved with 4-H, so I agreed to take the responsibility of superintendent.”

The superintendent position required a lot of work and long hours on Dore’s part. Work began on Wednesday of fair week and continued through Saturday night. She accepted entries, arranged them in showcases after the judging, kept the showcases clean and she greeted people all day long every day of the fair. “I came in and cleaned the Ag building on Wednesday morning of fair week,” she says. “We accepted entries on Wednesday afternoon. Judges came from out of town on Thursday to rate the entries, and then I set the products out on display. On Thursday the day started at 6:45 a.m. and went until 11 p.m. and Friday and Saturday we worked from 11 a.m.-11 p.m.”

She continues, “This made for long days. It often was very hot as we only had a few ceiling fans. We’d keep the doors open for air circulation.”

A few fair-related incidents stand out in Dore’s memory. “Mrs. Andrew Miller always brought homemade marshmallows to be judged,” Dore remarks. “I never heard of anyone else ever making marshmallows, but she did, and they were always shaped so nicely.”

Dore continues, “I remember one little girl who won a blue ribbon for her angel food cake. I asked her how many egg whites she used for the cake and she told me she made the cake from a box mix. Of course, this was wrong, as she was supposed to have made the cake from scratch, and here she won a blue ribbon for a boxed cake.”

Throughout her 17 years as superintendent, Dore noticed a shift in lifestyles that corresponded to a decrease in entries. “Times changed and entries went down,” Dore notes. “Big families and a lot of home cooking disappeared, 4-H membership dropped, and people started using boxed and packaged products instead of baking from scratch. Today, women work outside the home and no one bakes as much. People like to come and look at the entries but they don’t enter anything of their own.”

She adds, “Canning used to be a huge part of the culinary displays and we had canned goods from A to Z. Today there are fewer gardens and practically no one cans anymore.”

Dore points out that fair officials attempt to change with the times in hopes of encouraging people to enter culinary items. “We tried to keep up with the current trends,” Dore comments. “For example, when bread makers became popular, we added a category for breads made with bread makers. We also went from cake decorating using real cake to cake decorating using Styrofoam for the base. No matter how we tried, however, we still lost ground with the number of entries.”

Dore retired from her position as superintendent in 1999. “My knees got so bad,” she says. “It got to the point that I couldn’t bend them down to the showcase, so I decided it was time to retire.”

Dore greatly enjoyed the years she spent serving as superintendent. “I loved it,” she says. “I looked forward to it every year. My kids and grandkids helped put items in the showcase, and they really liked helping grandma work at the fair.”

She concludes, “I got to know a lot of people and I enjoyed visiting with friends and neighbors when they came to look at the displays. I would do it all again if I could.”