For this journalist the arrival of July has long been a time of reflection on my childhood and some of the best memories of those years up to and through my teen years.听
While there are fishing trips, and favoured books, and learning chess, Christmas presents and school friends 鈥� I suppose the usual things for many farm boys growing up through the 1960s and 70s 鈥� attending summer fairs was such a huge part of my summer holidays that the summer season brings back so many memories.听
And increasingly they are memories of a time now past.听
Summer fairs of course still exist听听鈥� a few returning after 2020 saw all cancelled due to COVID-19 鈥� but they are not the fairs of my youth.听
For me, summer fairs were largely about agriculture, with the ability, after chores were done at the barns, of hitting the midway to ride the bumper cars, or to eat a corndog.听
I recall a time when the Yorkton Fair 鈥� my home base for 30-plus years now 鈥� had cattle shows, dairy too, heavy horses, swine and sheep. The barns, most still standing 鈥� a few barely 鈥� were full for all three days of the fair.听
Livestock producers from a large area packed up their trailers and brought out their best stock to have it judged against others. It was an advertising tool for producers 鈥� a championship rosette was marketable when someone came looking to buy stock. A wall covered with first place red ribbons, interspersed with a few trophies in the office was a rather obvious billboard proclaiming the herd had shown well over the years.听
And, back then the farm community 鈥� still mostly mixed farms in that era 鈥� headed to the fairs for a day away from the usual work. They walked the machinery rows to see the latest offerings from a range of dealerships.听
Then it was off to the barns to look at the stock, and talk to the producers. I don鈥檛 recall a lot of 鈥渁t fair sales鈥� but it was a time to set the seed that when they needed their next stock to give Dad a call.听
It sounds business like, and it had that aspect, but there was a camaraderie at the fairs too. It was old friends gathering at each fair to enjoy a cold drink, to talk bloodlines and weather and Roughriders.听听
Along the way you met people who became important for life 鈥� my first wife and mother of our children 鈥� 小蓝视频 the most obvious.听
A certain sheep shepherdess now living in Australia was another, she and I getting into more water fights that I can even recall.
Today, livestock is all but gone 鈥� light horses 小蓝视频 a general exception 鈥� are gone from shows from Saskatoon to Yorkton to Melfort to Connaught and Invermay and Dauphin.听
Fairs are simply different now. You can鈥檛 spend six-eight weeks as gypsies going one to another showing swine, sheep, goats or chickens 鈥� over the years I showed all 鈥� but when July hits each year I sure wish I still could hit the fair trail.
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