4-H pre-fair judging
My family is just about done with 4-H pre-fair judging today. As a cloverbud member, my son showed his first craft today, which was a Lego Star Wars project (of course.) My girls had clothing construction judging and modeling and buymanship.
Any other 4-H families out there who were on the verge of quitting because of all the stress and pressure with the build-up to fair? I swear we about threw up our hands several times while my wife and girls were sewing into the wee hours of the night.
But today, when the judging was underway, and the kids were all done with the projects and did well with the judges and even got a callback in the modeling… it is easy to forget the pain of the effort.
The fair itself is a blast for my kids, probably mostly because they don’t have any big livestock to care for. Rabbits and chickens are pretty easy to deal with and it’s not like they have to get nervous about the show ring or anything.
I do think, however, while I watch the moms try to mouth instructions to their kids from afar, and while we stare down the modeling judges to try to read their lips, and every cringes when a girl messes up a turn… I think we could create a darn funny skit about an over-the-top parent with an above average 4-Her and all of the stuff that goes into judging and the fair.
Any good stories to contribute to the skit?
How about something about working until the very last inute, which I’ve heard is “the 4-H way”. Maybe a boy working continuing to work on his Lego project even as he’s walking into the school on pre-fair judging day and until the minute that he’s sitting in front of the judge. Maybe a girl being led in by her mother while the girl is finishing hemming her construction garment until the minute she is sitting in front of the judge.
When I was a kid I was a member of the Busy Bee 4-H club and we had a wonderful leader, Mrs. Dees. I showed sheep for a couple of years and then my grandfather thought I was big enough to show a steer. I had it tied up in the wash rack and my grandfather was helping me get some tangles out of its tail. Somebody threw a water balloon and it landed right next to my steer who quickly reacted with a swift kick that caught my grandfather right in the crotch. He went down like a rock. Show cattle always seem to have the “squirts”, maybe it’s the stress. But some kid had just walked his calf back to the barn and it had done a lot of “squirting” behind my calf. My grandfather was rolling aroung in the water and poop and wanting so bad to cuss but still had enough control to realize kids were present. He would say things like “you little son of a” and then not finish the sentence. Did you ever have one of those times when you got the giggles even though you knew that was NOT the thing to do? That happened to me. We spent more time hosing off grandpa than my calf. The next year I went back to showing lambs.
You had one of the best leaders ever. We had a special place to put food projects in our home
and you didn’t touch or eat it. The first year someone, like dad or the boys came in a ate the cookies for fair,
Farmboy,
While I cringe for your grandpa, that is a hilarious story! I can just imagine the need to let loose a string of curses in that situation, but having to hold it in because of where he was at. And having a bunch of kids likely half scared, half laughing. Double ouch. Really funny.