 This past week LDN pooled as much of our resources as possible to be
on the fairgrounds to try to capture as much as possible of the 73rd
annual time-honored event in its fullest glory.
The fair isn't a person, of course. It is a collective. It is an
event that celebrates our past and present accomplishments. It is
carried on, improved, ever-changing and attended by the people in
this community. As such, it changes from being an event to something
more. It becomes "us" celebrating our rural roots, enhanced by our
urban strengths, as the two join in a kinship of community for six
days each summer.
The fair certainly kept all of us busy. We promised a minimum of
100 pictures and we soared past that number on the fourth day of the
fair. With today's albums we will have published 219 in total with
still more in tomorrow's edition. That
means, just looking at a picture for five seconds, it will take you
24 minutes to view them all. Then, there are stories and
mini-stories and pages and pages of results that have made our fair
page larger than many Web sites.
Because there is so much information, we intend to leave the fair
section available in our entire week's editions through next
weekend. We know many of you have been busy at the fair, and we want
you all to be able to sit back and savor the documentation of the
2009 fair when you get a chance this week. And, of course, the
entire fair section will remain in our archives for future viewing.
Fair secretary Mike Maske aptly explained that once the fair
starts, it is a stampede that the fair personnel just hope to be
able to steer in the right direction. We think they steered this one
most admirably.
The weather is the most common variable that influences the
semi-outdoor event the most. We had our monsoon this year. We had
mud and cold drizzle and windy nights. We had blazing hot heat, and
we had a kind dose of perfect weather.
Through it all, with minor delays and changes in times, the fair
went on. It went on because so many of you made it go on. By
involvement as volunteers, contributors, contestants or visitors,
all of you put another successful fair on the books.
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We appreciate all the compliments we have been receiving regarding
our coverage. It has been our delight to be there as much as we were
and to take down for history as much as we could. This wouldn't have
been possible without the great help of our sponsors, and as you
enjoy all our pages, we ask that you take note of all the great
businesses that made this coverage possible.
We are confident when we claim that this is the busiest community
in all of central Illinois. We now know, after trying our best to
cover everything, and failing a bit, that our fair is also the
busiest in the region.
At any given time there were so many things going on that we
couldn't document them all, no matter how hard we tried. We have
some ideas on how we can improve for next year, and we will plan for
even bigger and better coverage in 2010.
In the meantime, grab yourself a cup of coffee or some other
libation, pull up a chair, spend some time going through your Logan
County Fair section, and enjoy the moment. It was something special
because of all of you. And that makes the Logan County Fair our
Personality of the Week.
[By
MIKE FAK]
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