Quick note: This article won a blue ribbon in the Inspirational Creative Writing Section at the Kenton County Fair.
Out in the county
If you live in Kenton County, Kentucky, and particularly if you grew up where the public sewer ends and the septic lines begin, then you are going to the Kenton County Fair, every year, it’s just that plain and simple.
A showcase of values This annual event, however, is more than just an event. It is a showcase of our heritage, our ancestors, and our values centered around home, family, farming, and community that runs deep in our blood. And even though I grew up here and know this to my core, I had forgotten about the true magic and meaning of the fair, until recently.
Back to my roots
Being a single mom raising my two girls, I tend to run ragged, like most folks I’m sure. With high gas prices and not being able to buy a quart of strawberries these days without taking a loan, I decided to go back to my roots and raise a little garden this year. After all, I felt like this was the education my daughters really needed.
With the help of my brother, I built containers to raise the garden as I was now renting a small farmhouse and was pretty certain it wouldn’t be kosher if I swapped out landscaping for tomato plants. After working all day, I would go out to plant seeds and tend to the garden. Although my world had been turned upside in many ways, the garden continued to grow and rebuilt a trust I had lost with the universe.
The inspiration of a neighbor
Quickly learning that container gardening is a whole different ballgame than just planting stuff in the ground, I struggled with this new technique. Had my neighbor who had been container gardening for years not been there to coach me along the way, my girls and I would have had to hike it back to Kroger for peppers this year. Each day, she and I would chat about gardening even calling our back porches “the greenhouse.” When something gets a nickname, you know it’s special. I learned that my neighbor’s garden was referred to as the “friendship garden,” a way to build close bonds with her coworkers and friends. “Everyone must bring something to the garden,” she told me. Little did my neighbor know what she was really growing.
Magical moment: You MUST enter the fair
One night sitting in our “greenhouse,” my neighbor mentions the fair. Receiving best in the show last year, she shared her love for sewing and crocheting. Her cross stitch pieces would make Monet blush, by the way. A side of her that I hadn’t yet seen shone brightly that night. At that moment, she says, “Oh my goodness, you must enter the fair.”
I blush and say, “What do I have to offer?” A question I’m sure lies deep in the human heart when one has lost their way.
And that was the magic moment. She went on and mentioned how I was always tinkering around, baking in the kitchen, how I had given so much love to the hydrangea that never bloomed until I showed up, and she reminded me of my love for writing. She planted seeds of worth in me and in our quiet conversation with the lightning bugs shining, I began to feel rooted and confident again, it was just that plain and simple.
Salt of the earth heroes on center stage
That is what the fair is about. That is why we go every year. We celebrate the good salt of the earth people and how their beliefs manifest. The purity of the things that we’ve grown and believe in are finally put on center stage. That week, that one week, the headline isn’t the crazy war in Ukraine or the chaos in Washington, it’s the hardworking, hometown folks and underdogs that keep this country running are front and center. The everyday quiet conversations with one another that encourages the heart to simply keep going are magnified - that is the headline, it’s just that plain and simple. The fair is a reminder of who we are, what we believe in, and how we help one another in our daily, quiet struggles of life when we question and desperately need seeds of hope. Seeds that build trust among our family, friends, and community again and again and again.
A best-in-show neighbor
We weren’t meant to hoe the rows of life alone and my neighbor is a shining example of what we truly mean to one another and what we can grow together and within ourselves. This is what the fair is really about, that is the magic that brings us back every year. Folks not from here feel it, they can sense it. They might not be able to put words to it. But I can, thanks to my neighbor reminding me that I can. So, it is for this reason that my neighbor wins the best in show ribbon for growing the most important thing one can grow, a person’s sense of self-worth. That’s what the fair is really about - it’s just that plain and simple. Blue Ribbon Highlights Below are a few highlights from the fair. I ended up taking home 11 ribbons for a variety of baked goods, flowers, and herbs: (7 blue, 3-second place, 1 third place, and a show stopper award for the flower arrangement (voted by people who attended the fair). My niece ended up taking her fair share of ribbons in the categories of gardening and writing. My neighbor won the overall best in show for a multitude of gardening and sewing projects. Her St. Nicholas cross-stitch showpiece (shown below) has over 21,000 stitches and was prized as the ultimate blue ribbon winner out of all the projects entered into the fair. And her vegetables seen below are ones she lovingly grew from her Friendship Garden.
See what an inspiring back porch evening conversation can do...
Comments