The annual event

in Fryeburg opens

at 8 a.m. Sunday.

It’s the 153rd fair.
By Jim Smedley
Staff Writer

FRYEBURG – Workers, volunteers and officials are working overtime. It’s just about fair time in Fryeburg.

Some areas were nearly ready for the 153rd opening Sunday; others had a ways to go.

Ann Michel Ames, a 23-year fair worker, and others were busy with domestic items, vegetables, quilts, baked and canned goods to be exhibited and judged at the Agricultural Exhibition Center.

“This was the first day to check things in,” Ames said Thursday. “I like it. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be here,” she said.

Her dedication was echoed by others, who were also busy getting ready for one of the granddaddy fairs of all New England.

Alfred and Iva Kimball, participants for as long as they can remember, were again the first to have their oxen in place.

This year they brought Sam and Silo, twin 3,600-pound oxen who were already hitched up and hungry on Thursday.

George Weston, livestock chairman, seemed relaxed, probably because much of his most difficult work had already been done.

“We start planning for next year about a week after the fair is over,” Weston said. “I start getting judges lined up in January.”

And there is plenty to judge. Andrews said there will be about 3,000 large animals shown and judged during the fair.

Weston’s grandfather George and father John also had been involved in the fair.

“I was brought right up in it,” he said.

Coming together

Performer Jewel Clark, six-year fair worker and daughter of “Yodeling Slim” Clark, was painting gray shadowing around the black lettering on the trademark white barns of the fair.

John Applin, 6-year fair exhibitor, was putting the final touches on the Pleasant Valley Grange 136 of West Bethel booth.

Maintenance workers Milt Palmer, who has been working here for 14 years, and Walter Cannell, six-year worker, were hanging bunting in the 4-H Livestock Center.

Fair Supervisor Roy Andrews said fair workers constructed half of that building in 1993 and added an extension in 1998.

Andrews said families who participate and hand the fair tradition down to the young were an important part of the fair.

“There’s also a lot of friendships, relationships that started and continue here,” he said.

Emily’s back

Lonny and Starr Jones, owners of Emily’s – a restaurant only open during fairs – were busy preparing for the opening.

Judith Haynes, superintendent of the Forestry Resource Center, was awaiting arrival of the many exhibitors scheduled to set up educational and information booths.

Bud Gilmore, owner of Smokey’s Greater Shows, said his midway rides won’t be ready until Sunday.

“We have seven rides coming up from the Cumberland Fair,” Gilmore said. “They plan to open (the fair) at 8 (a.m.), and we’ll be ready five minutes of.”

jsmedley@sunjournal.com