My Love of the County Fair: Pies, Pigs, and Prizes

The Eastern Montana Fair is happening in Miles City, MT this week. The fairgrounds are filling up with campers, tents, carnival rides, and food trucks. The smell of fried dough, 4-H hamburgers, and church member baked pies will soon be filling the air, along with the buzz of excitement as kids prepare their animals for showmanship and sale events. The layout, sounds, and smells bring back so many memories.

Growing up, I loved our county fair. The Ravalli County Fair took place in Hamilton, MT usually right before Labor Day. The fair was always so much fun.  I loved going on the rides with my friends, working at the 4-H food booth, and sometimes I even getting to camp with friends at the fair if we had animals to take care of as part of our 4-H projects. I remember going to the evening fair rodeos with my parents and little brother. We would happily munch on corn on the cob and these exotic things called “Tater Pigs” which were a baked potato with a sausage inside. Delicious!

One of the best parts of the county fair was being in 4-H. I belonged to Gary’s Willing Workers 4-H club and usually chose cooking, photography, and sewing projects to work on throughout the year and then entered those items at the fair. I remember making aprons, baking perfectly round cookies, and doing my best to capture wildlife images that would make fair worthy photos. Going through the barns to check on what ribbons you had won was an annual tradition that was nerve wracking and thrilling.

After a year or two in 4-H and sewing arm holes closed on various sewing projects, I really wanted to raise 4-H animals to show and sell at the fair. I was a town kid, but my grandpa had a home and small acreage on the outskirts of Stevensville. Grandpa Roberts had a soft spot for my brother and I and he let me raise a couple of pigs on his property. I remember helping grandpa secure a pen for my animals and feeling proud for choosing where the feeding troughs and water tank would go.

I knew nothing about raising pigs, but I quickly learned to feed them, smear oil on them so their skin was nice and not scaly, and herd them around with my show cane. I would ride my bike out to grandpa’s house daily to feed my pigs and practice herding them around the pen with my show cane. Grandpa ran a hose out to the pen so watering the pigs was easy and I could also hose the pigs down and make mud ponds for them to roll around in and keep cool during the hot summer months. Upon reflection, I now understand the huge amount of work that my parents and my grandpa put into my 4-H animal projects. I remember my grandpa’s truck, aka the Shit Wagon (name courtesy of my Uncle Dennis because the blue and white truck was always covered in cow manure) hauling my animals around and grandpa always being there to load and unload my pigs.

Floyd was the pig I remember best. Floyd was a good boy and even turned into the 1980 Grand Champion market hog at the Ravalli County Fair. Winning a Grand Championship was the pinnacle of 4-H animal success, and it was a coveted and exciting accomplishment.

I remember being so nervous herding Floyd into the sale pen and having the crowd bid on him. The sale of animals took place on the Saturday morning of the fair and the kids selling animals dressed in clean white shirts to look presentable and professional as they herded their animals around and people bid. My mom had gotten me a starchy, long sleeved button up shirt which I tucked into my brown corduroy pants. The owner of Bays Market in Corvallis ended up buying Floyd and I was thankful that my Uncle Jack was in the bidding audience doing his best to get the bid as high as possible. Because Floyd was a Grand Champion, he was the highest selling pig at the fair that year. I do not remember the exact amount that Floyd sold for, but it was over $3/lb., and I was able to buy a good portion of my first car from the sale of Floyd.

After the sale, I remember reality hitting hard when I went back to the animal barn and Floyd was gone. All that remained was an empty pen and his brush and supplies. I remember feeling sad because Floyd was like a pet to me. I did not like the idea of anything bad happening to Floyd, but that was the high-stake game that tweens faced raising 4-H animals for sale. Those Tater Pigs had to come from somewhere.