[wdfifteen]

When I was a kid the Greene County Fair was the next best thing to Christmas. I took my Holstein heifer, Julie, to the fair when I was 10 and won best in class with her. I also won the dairy cow judging contest, and won the wagon and trailer backing contest. Backing a four wheel wagon is HARD (so hard that my dad put a hitch on the front of our John Deere to back the wagons with on the farm).
Kids who were showing cattle had to stay with them over night for the week, and this was the first unsupervised overnight experience I ever had. For a shy kid who didn't get off the farm much, it was a great experience. It was educational as well as character building.
All the machinery dealers would bring big displays of the latest tractors and combines. I was a gearhead even then, so I spent a lot of time studying them.
The town people went to the other, non-ag side of the fair to ride the rides and eat carnival food. To us they all looked out of place, like they didn't understand the reason for the fair.

I went to the same fair with my grandsons about 10 years ago. The rides and food area was the usual, but the cattle, hog, and petite ruminants barns were almost empty. It was sad to see that the fair had declined so much.