FARMINGTON – Some senior couples strolled hand-in-hand Tuesday as they toured exhibits, watched steer and oxen pulls and listened to local music groups during Senior Citizen Day at Farmington Fair.

With the scent of freshly fried potatoes, clams and other tempting treats wafting through the crowd at noontime, people gathered to hear the sounds of Barry Wood at the gazebo while the Melodears sang songs from the 1950s on a small platform near the Red Schoolhouse.

A Livermore Falls-area group, the Melodears formed while at Livermore Falls High School in the 1950s and performed for WCSH6’s “Youth Cavalcade” and the “Dave Astor Show.” They won that youth talent program and were given an opportunity to travel to New York to appear on the Ted Mack’s “The Original Amateur Hour,” said Carlton Berry whose wife, Diane, was playing the piano and singing with the group.

During their 50th class reunion in 2005, the Melodears got together again with Diane Richard of Livermore now joining the group consisting of Berry of Livermore, and Rae Perreault and Patty Doiron, both of Jay.

The group will perform for Livermore Falls’ Pumpkin Festival on Sept. 27 and have performed this summer in the town’s gazebo, at class reunions and in nursing homes, Berry said.

In the museum next to the exhibition hall, members of the New Vineyard Historical Society pulled a variety of items together to show the history of their town.

“It’s fun watching people relive their lives and the lives of their parents and ancestors through the photos and items exhibited,” said Liz Anderson whose husband, Sherwood, president of the Historical Society, demonstrated handcrafted rocking chairs with self-adjusting backs created and sold in 1894 by his great-grandfather, O. S. Turner.

Turner’s mill was about a half mile north of the present village, Anderson said, but his great-grandfather would travel Franklin and Somerset counties and beyond via horse and wagon to sell the chairs priced at $2.75 for a man’s chair, $1.75 for a woman’s and 75 cents for a child’s chair. The chairs are now collectors’ items with some shown in the State Museum in Augusta, he said.

“There’s been a ton of people through the museum,” Liz said, noting how people have recognized family members and former teachers in photographs as they also remembered the mills of yesterday and today found in New Vineyard.

Local history attracted many Tuesday as people looked over photos taken by Sun Journal correspondent Barbara Yeaton.

On the other side of the fairgrounds volunteers at the Franklin County Agricultural Museum explained the use of various items.

“Some ask what a particular item was used for while others are quick to state how much they hated using that particular thing,” said Priscilla Ross of Farmington, a volunteer staff member for the museum.

The Red Schoolhouse Museum also offered fair-goers a chance to learn about or reminisce about days gone by.