FARMINGTON — For the next nine days, Marjorie Goodwin heads back to work in the Secretary’s Office at the Farmington Fair.

“It’s the ‘go-to’ place,” which at times feels like Grand Central Station, she said.

The office, a former private house, sits next to the main gate on High Street. People call or stop there for information or for lost-and found-items, including children, and sometimes just to talk, she said.

Goodwin starts work Friday selling family tickets for the 172nd annual exhibition that begins Sunday, Sept. 16. Those who plan to attend the fair a few times, especially those with children, find it a better deal to buy the family ticket that allows entrance to the fair all week. She’ll sell the tickets Friday and Saturday at the fair office, then it’s up to the ticket offices, she said.

Goodwin has worked for the fair secretary for about 30 years, first under Don Fletcher and now under Neal Yeaton. She first worked with Fletcher’s wife, Mary, in the office and now with Yeaton’s wife, Camilla, she said.

The Fletchers were friends of Marj and her late husband, Ralph. He started working at the fair with Harrison Starbird and since he was going to be there, anyway, she figured, “Why not” start working at fair, too, she said.

When she started, the office was a small room on the southern end of the Exhibition Hall where much of the fair results from the judges were checked and recorded. It’s still checked but more and more is entered by computer, she said.

Everything displayed and judged, from animals to handiwork, is recorded. Once the judges list each item, their books return to the office where the listings are checked against the categories printed in the fair book.

Other parts of her work have changed over the years. There used to be a sheep office where she would go and record entries for those shows, but now fair directors Rupert Pratt and Randy Hall cover all livestock. The same with the oxen pulling. She used to record the entries, but now Terry Mosher takes care of it, she said.

But that doesn’t mean there still isn’t plenty to do in the office during the fair.

Ribbons, trophies and paperwork for each event is prepared for the judges at the office, Camilla Yeaton said. Along with the checking and entering, premiums for ribbon winners are prepared.

“We pay all premiums from horse pulling to knit items in the Exhibition Hall,” she said. That accounts for about 1,000 checks processed and given out. Premiums can range from $1 to $800, she said. They pay all awards except the horse races.

If all goes well, the premiums for the Exhibition Hall are ready by Tuesday and people can start picking them up.

The office also maintains the only incoming phone line on the fairgrounds. All phone calls filter through the office, Yeaton said.

“It’s a total change for my life for that week, totally different people whom I find interesting,” Goodwin said. “You get tired but I enjoy it, for a week.”

Goodwin was raised on a farm on the Farmington Falls Road, but she doesn’t remember her father showing at the fair.

After going to business school in Portland, she worked as a secretary for a wholesale grocer and then an insurance company. After returning to Farmington, a University of Maine Cooperative Extension agent told her the local office needed a new secretary.

“Here I am,” she said.  She stayed in that position for 38 years, from October 1956 to December 1994.

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More information about the Farmington Fair and a schedule of events is available at www.farmingtonfairmaine.com.