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Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009

All’s fair that ends fair: 20-year fair worker honored

PERRY — Lora Arledge was 12 years old when she first smelled the cotton candy, kicked up some sawdust and heard the carnies barking on the midway.

She was attending a county fair between the tiny towns of Sunbright and Wartburg, in the hills of east Tennessee.

Although that was 55 years ago, the memory has been preserved like jars of homemade pickles and pears. She remembers how they were lined up in rows on tables for the canning competition inside a barn at the fair. Those first-place ribbons were practically the color of a Bluetick Coonhound.

She never dreamed an annual fair would become part of her life in such a rich and fulfilling way.

The Georgia National Fair is celebrating its 20th anniversary this week. Lora was one of nine employees from the original staff honored during last Friday’s opening ceremonies.

She serves as director of the Georgia Living/Heritage Hall programs. This fair will mark her final curtain call. She is retiring after all the paperwork is done at the end of December.

In 1971, she moved to Perry after her husband, Tom, a minister, was called to St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church.

While raising their three children, Lora took a job on the two-woman staff at the Perry Chamber of Commerce. In 1984, the state was searching for a site in Middle Georgia to locate the fairgrounds and agricenter. Perry was joined in the competition by Macon, Unadilla, Forsyth and Byron.

“We rolled out the red carpet and served the site selection committee some peach ice cream,” Lora recalled.

Of course, the deal was also sweetened with the original 628 acres of prime farmland along Interstate 75. The political clout of former state Rep. Larry Walker didn’t hurt, either.

Lora was impressed with Wilson Sparks, the fair’s first executive director, and his strong commitment to the tradition of agricultural fairs.

“I enjoyed my job at the chamber, but I had made a comment to Mr. Sparks that if he needed any help with the fair just to call me,” she said. “I didn’t have anything in mind. I just wanted to be a part of it.”

Sparks didn’t forget her offer. She began her job in February 1989. He sent her to harvest ideas from a half-dozen fairs around the country.

She traveled from pea-sized country fairs in the South to the giant state fair in Oklahoma, now in its 103rd year.

She collected about 3,000 entries for the home arts and fine arts exhibits during the first fair in October 1990. That number now exceeds more than 12,000.

The Georgia Living program, located in the Miller-Murphy-Howard Building and Heritage Hall, is in its fourth different venue during the past two decades. More than 50,000 people are expected to pass through the 40,000 square feet of exhibit space before the final day Sunday.

There’s a colorful palette under the spacious roof near the front of the fairgrounds, where you’ll find everything from quilts to flowers, pottery, artwork, photographs, wood turning and pumpkin carving.

Most everything is created, not manufactured.

I was there early Tuesday afternoon, sandwiched between the grits recipe judging and a chili cook-off for the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (formerly the Future Homemakers of America.)

About 150 of the state’s 159 counties annually participate in the Georgia Living competition, so there’s always plenty of work.

Lora doesn’t mind. In fact, she wishes the fair lasted for a month — three times longer than the usual 10 days every October. Then there would be more time to enjoy the fruits of everyone’s labor.

“The one comment I hear over and over again is about how talented the people of Georgia are,” she said.

It’s something she never gets tired of hearing.

Reach Gris at 744-4275 or gris@macon.com.