By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
The grandstand is a ghost town, the merry-go-round is missing, and the food vendors are slim.
Orders by Gov. Mike DeWine to prevent the spread of COVID-19 turned the normally busy Wood County Fair midway into a quiet country lane this week.
But that suited some people just fine.
There are bright sides to the junior fair, minus the hustle-bustle of the regular fair. There aren’t long lines for food, there’s lots of close parking – and there is plenty of opportunity for camaraderie among families who prepare for the fair year-round.
Some even prefer the pared down version of the fair.
“It’s just nice not having as many people here,” said J.J. Weaver, of Deshler, who had just shown his feeder cattle Wednesday afternoon to a much smaller crowd than normal.
But Weaver reconsidered when he talked about really missing his favorite food vendor, Scotty’s, which isn’t at the fair this year.
“I’d rather it be the normal fair,” he said, when it came to dining at the fair for the week.
Many parents were grateful that their children had the opportunity to show their livestock and the skills they had been cultivating over the past year.
Doug and Melinda Kale, of Rudolph, sat with masks on outside the exhibition pavilion where their daughter, Konnaly, had shown three beef feeders.
“They took the time to raise them, so it’s good they got to show them,” Melinda Kale said. “It’s sad. It’s good for the kids, but it’s sad for the community.”
The crowds were small, but that didn’t matter.
“The audience has changed, but everything else is the same,” Melinda Kale said.
David and Michelle Welling, of Pemberville, were also relieved that their son, Ross, was able to show his rabbits and dairy beef feeder.
“It’s just a nice thing that they let us have the junior fair,” David Welling said. “It’s a strange time in the world right now.”
The couple was waiting to get classic fair food of french fries and a corn dog.
“Franks’ Fries is one of my favorites,” David Welling said.
Though the crowds were small in comparison to the normal Wood County Fair, some patrons were still taking advantage of golf cart rides from the Wood County Sheriff’s Office.
Chief Deputy Eric Reynolds was motoring down the fairway in a golf cart on Wednesday afternoon with relative ease compared to weaving around the customary fair crowds.
“Everybody seems to be, for the most part, complying with the rules by the fair board and the health department” to wear masks and social distance, Reynolds said.
