Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 10, 1993 TAG: 9309100267
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEW CASTLE LENGTH: Medium
Partly, it's the fault of the dry summer, but much of the blame lies in a drought of the carnival spirit.
Even though hundreds were here for opening night Wednesday, organizers say the Craig County Fair is headed for extinction if something doesn't change.
One person after another - fairgoer and fair organizer alike - says things haven't been the same at this half-century-old fair since it had to get rid of the "girlie show."
Ten years ago, organizers bowed to public pressure to get rid of the strip-tease show, which was a staple of the fair and attracted crowds from 50 miles around.
One Craig County resident, the mother of a teen-age son, pointed out that the show was secluded at the far end of the fairground away from the midway and exhibit halls.
"If you didn't want to see it, you didn't have to go down there," she said. The woman didn't want to be identified, however, because she has friends and relatives who were strongly opposed to the shows.
She didn't recall any trouble associated with the acts. What she does know is that the fair has declined in size and attendance each year since.
Bob Abbott, vice president of the Craig County Fair Association, also dates the fair's decline from the end of the girlie show era.
There was a time when you couldn't find a parking space, and traffic would be lined up on Virginia 311 waiting to get in. There'd be a boom when second-shift workers from the Roanoke Valley would drive up after work to catch the last strip-tease of the night, one observer said.
Now, Abbott said, organizers couldn't even get someone to run the traditional garden-tiller race that had been scheduled Saturday, the fair's last day.
The loss of the girlie show isn't the only reason the fair's been fading away, though, Abbott said.
The people who own the fair association's 180 shares of stock are getting older, Abbott said. Many of them have held stock since the association was formed around 1940, he said, and some just are not able physically to participate in running and organizing the event.
A 12-person executive committee is responsible for most of the work, fair workers said Thursday. They are the ones, for instance, who had to repair the cattle barn after the roof collapsed during last winter's blizzard.
Even during the boom days, the shares never paid a dividend, Abbott said, though there were some years when there was enough left over to pay for a shareholders' dinner.
Now, the association can't find enough volunteers to collect admission and parking fees, park cars and see to the other necessities.
The county's young people don't seem interested in working to keep the fair going, Abbott and other shareholders said this week. And increasing government regulation, such as restrictions on the number of nights any one group can run the bingo concession, tends to make it harder to organize, the shareholders said.
"I'd hate to see it fold, but I'm afraid it's going to" one of these years, Abbott said.
Still, the fair continues to provide family entertainment to several hundred people each night.
Thursday there was the Miss Craig County Fair pageant, won this year by Kim Reynolds. Some 400 people packed the grandstand - and the rest of the fair came to a standstill - for the hour-and-a-half pageant.
The pageant - as are many other concessions - was a fund-raiser for a county organization. The Craig County High School Beta Club collected admission fees.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars post sold hot dogs and barbecue; the Lions Club operated a putting game. The county historical society had a booth, as did the extension homemakers, the sports booster club, the rescue squad and some commercial interests.
There were popcorn and funnel cakes, a Ferris wheel and a merry-go-round, a 200-pound pumpkin and antique quilts.
But almost everybody says it isn't the fair it once was - and they're just not sure how much longer this Craig County "family get-together" is going to last.
by CNB