Friendships, businesses thrive during fair

Fair Folks and Facts column

By Debbie Schwarz Simpson

RENEWING ACQUAINTANCES ... That’s what Wanda Loudermilk does when she comes to the State Fair each August to sell her Amish fudge.

Wanda grew up in Piney View and also lived in Lewisburg. She resides in Indiana now.

This marks her 47th year at the exposition, and that’s a long time and a lot of friendships forged!

MIGHTY FRIENDLY ... That’s the best way to describe Roger Cook and Saundra Simms, who greeted me at the main gate of the fairgrounds last week.

Roger hails from Crawley and is head of security at the State Fair while Saundra is a guard and makes her home in nearby Lewisburg.

Roger tells me that Securities, based in Roanoke, Va., handles all types of security worldwide and has 250,000 employees. Securities has 35 employees at the State Fair, Roger said. “We handle the gates, campgrounds and free parking,” he explained.

IT PAYS TO ADVERTISE ... When Dave Naeyaert, owner of the cinnamon rolls concession stand, was looking for a way to identify his business, he turned to another concessionaire, Wes Sheridan. Wes and his wife, Susan, own the Natural Stone Sign Company in Pickaway and exhibit and sell under the grandstand.

The sign, which features bakers’ caps worn by Dave and his staffers, two rolling pins and cans of flour and cinnamon, was unveiled last year and had, in small letters, the natural stone company’s telephone number.

When I asked Wes about the sign, it brought laughter.

It seems that not long after last year’s State Fair, the Monroe countian received an unusual telephone call. The person on the other end of the line was requesting a contract for a small shipment of cinnamon rolls!

“Anything I had to send them would be mighty hard,” Wes said with a wide grin.

SPEAKING OF CINNAMON ROLLS ... Little John Revitte was sharing one of the delicacies with his granddad, Dr. John Tomlinson of Lewisburg, when I sighted the pair.

The 2-year-old is the son of Rob and Christine Revitte of Denver, Colo., and came in with lots of other Tomlinson family members to take in the State Fair.

His favorite ride is on one of the tractors on display on the fairgrounds proper.

A FIRST-TIMER ... When I made my first walk around the livestock barns, I noticed a young family standing by a very hefty market hog.

I learned that Halie Thork, a member of the Monroe County 4-H Club, was showing livestock for the first time. She will be in the fourth grade at Union Elementary School this fall and was excited about her role at the exposition.

Keeping Halie company were her mother and stepfather Jetta and Gary Elmore, and her 6-year-old brother, Dillin.

Gary told me that he, like Halie, had shown livestock in the 4-H division at the State Fair for 12 years. He not only had market hogs but he showed purebreds, too.

IT’S A FACT ... The Boys and Girls Club was part of the Greenbrier Valley Fair in 1921, the year the exposition opened its gates for the first time. R.M. Musser was the first department superintendent.

In 1927 the youth group had a new name, 4-H Club, and members of that organization still play an integral role in the State Fair each year.