You have to feel good about the fair!

Our county fair is a great county fair

I have gotten over my bitterness toward the Stevens County Fair. The bitterness owes to the time I attempted taking Mom out there, toward the end of her life, on a Wednesday. I had wrongly assumed that the fair would be "full-on," due to the community supper having been moved to Tuesday. 

This misunderstanding wasn't the worst part. Upon turning in to the little road leading into the main fair parking lot, I saw "private parking" signs. I was astounded and rather disbelieving. Private parking during one of the days of the official run of the fair? Private parking? 

I remember the story Brent Waddell told me about how he attempted to charge a nominal amount for parking on some property he owned. He's the trailer park guy. He reported being more or less harassed out of doing that by the fair people. I suppose the fair promoted "free parking" which it is supposed to be. So Brent's little arrangement might have confused people. 

Well, I felt confused on the notorious Wednesday in question. It turns out the 4-H foodstand would not have been open anyway. At least in those times, the fair was only in partial operation on Wednesday. Is it more vigorous now in 2023? I'm not certain about that. 

I was in my father's prized Lincoln Town Car, white, when Mom and I pulled into the fair on the Wednesday that I write about here. I looked around for someone to whom I could shout the question "Is this really private parking?" I was told "yes" in an unhesitating way. So there, an official fair lot was closed off to the general public on one of the days of the official run of the fair. 

The official run was promoted on all the signs, billboards etc. But don't expect to be able to park out there. 

How rude, I thought. 

I made myself scarce at the fair for several years after that. Life has its frustrations for everyone. There's no point in letting emotions bubble up about something like that. I tried forgetting about it as I made my way to the fair this year. The 150-year milestone? Well congrats. 

I remember my family taking me out to the fair in the early '60s. I remember our primary intent was to visit our neighbor Virginia Lindor who was active with the homemakers building. I don't remember a lot else but I'm sure the fair was quite smaller than today. It would have to be. 

 

Lee Community Center

The fair took a significant step forward in size and quality when the Lee Center was up and running. Lee was built primarily as a hockey arena. Y'all maybe should have a reminder that the proposal for an indoor hockey arena, which would be accompanied by real high school hockey, was actually controversial with a certain element of the Morris community. My recollection is that it was the old academic "intelligentsia" of Morris that sort of had a pissing reaction. 

Therefore when the school district first bean weighing the idea, it was forced into a defensive stance, maybe just a subtle one, but you could sense it. I can't remember if the following was a for-the-record comment but the reaction from the school board was: "Well, if you're going to build a hockey building, we want it to be a good one." 

OK, translation: We know that the hockey proposal is dodgy or controversial because the "academic" stuffed shirts of this community don't want to see "athletics" expanded. Because, school is supposed to be all about "academics." 

I put "academics" in quotes because I think it's largely a specious thing. Today kids can do almost all of their necessary learning with the use of electronic communications. The intelligentsia of Morris was powerful then. I think it has retreated substantially today. I'm not suggesting we appreciate "teachers" less, just that they have had to adjust their role. It has been observed that teachers are more like "caretakers" today. As one online commenter put it, "we've gone from having underpaid teachers to overpaid caretakers." 

Oh that's rather mean. But it reflects the presence of what I'm trying to point out here. 

 

Building up the ice sport

I remember when the local hockey group sponsored a trip to see the old hockey North Stars at the Met Center, Bloomington. The group invited me to come along because I was of course with the newspaper. I could gain some enrichment and provide some coverage for the paper: PR for hockey which hockey needed in the face of some resistance in its efforts, really truly. I exaggerate not. I think Ron Sharstrom would confirm what I am writing about. 

Hockey was going to cost money and of course money has to come from somewhere. If the school district was going to help foot this, well it might mean the pie would be sliced thinner for the always-aggrieved teachers union. Seriously, it is sad that teacher unions became such a lightning rod for conflicts, in communities everywhere. I would assert that the situation was worse here than in other places. We had a few real pain in the rear end types. So many years have passed, you might not remember, maybe you weren't affected that much by it, or maybe you're too young. I run into people who are "too young" all the time. 

I should finish my little story about the kids' trip to the North Stars game. Incidentally I had a blast. It was my only time ever attending a North Stars game. Let's say I was pretty generous in the coverage I produced for the Morris newspaper. How could anyone object, right? I mean, an enriching and fun trip for kids who were interested in a sport. 

Well, some people didn't like it. Jim Morrison at the paper received an actual letter, complete with some of the predictable sarcasm, from a prime "usual suspect." 

This individual huffed and puffed. By the end of the 1980s he was gone in a manner that I was told by an insider was involuntary. Looking back I do not wish to harbor any dislike toward that person. Maybe he was a product of his times - many such instances can be cited around us. I personally was affected by the times of changing technology and the overall sea change in communications. Seemed futile to try to keep up eventually. There were times toward the end of my tenure with the paper when I thought "man, I'm in a total daze and I don't know how I'm even surviving from one day to the next." 

In the end I did not survive. A management-level person typed multiple pages of micro-managing specifications that pertained to - you guessed it - sports. It is almost obscene how the typical outstate small town newspaper gives so much attention to sports. I think most of us realize what's going on: it's not as if all this coverage is really of practical use and value - not even close. You might say it's political. The paper has to make clear that it supports the local educational institutions. 

And more importantly, the sports parents of a given time - always a pretty small minority - put the paper under a microscope and are ready to unleash absolute hell at any time. 

 

Hard to get over

The day after I left the paper, June of 2006, someone should have gotten hold of me and said "Brian, starting today you don't have to worry about satisfying sports parents any more. Not one iota. So forget about it, starting right now!" Alas it took me time. I'd still have nightmares. But I have warm memories about the hockey trip to the North Stars game. 

Home of the MBA Storm: Lee Community Center

When the hockey arena concept was nascent but picking up steam, the school board staked out its cautious approach: "If you're going to build this, we want it to be a good one." In other words: "We hate to admit that we're emphasizing sports here but doggone it, a new facility really ought to be up to snuff." 

Thank goodness it all got done right. I pitched in a thousand bucks myself, in a time when a thousand bucks went further than today. 

Jim Beauregard thanked me. My parents gave $ too. The Williams name is attached to various important things. I'm always making $ available to the school music program. It's true that I am friends with band director Wanda Dagen but that's not the only reason I do it - at least I don't think it is. 

The whole hockey arena push had a happy ending, and we most definitely reap the benefits for the Stevens County Fair. 

The fair would have been 100 years old when I graduated from high school. The fair was considerably smaller and with a much less glowing image than it has today. Sorry but it's true: I think that in the '70s the county fair seemed almost like an anachronism - on the way out really. 

I think Ronald Reagan helped turn the country around. Optimism sprouted everywhere. At the same time, I think the old academic "intelligentsia" began fading fast, thank goodness. There was a corps of people at UMM who were on the devolutionary side. Today? UMM has changed. Overall it has less vitality. But the people who still have jobs there are not arrogant. They fit in with the rest of us just fine. 

The UMM male athletes are no longer so cocky and self-important. I don't think the community ever liked those traits but we considered UMM so important, we didn't say much if anything about it. You might say we humored them. 

The UMM students of today are more mature and respectful - maybe that comes with how much higher education costs, eh? I like it. Gone is the arrogance of insulting the visiting athletes and their fans from other schools. One issue with that, is that I think Chancellor Imholte had no problem with it, actually liked joining in with it. How many people recognize the "Imholte" name any more? "The Silver Fox" (based on his hair). 

My goodness, I should finish my thoughts about the day when I attempted to bring Mom out to the fair and saw "private parking." I eventually learned what I had suspected: one day of the fair really gets turned over to a big local company and its employees. No need for me to mention its name or the church that is associated with it. It is not a mainstream church. I'm inclined to think of it as a "cult." But the people with that company or church had special access at the fair on Wednesday. 

Is this still the case? I don't know. It is Friday as I write this, and I have been out to the fair three times. The fourth will be tonight. I have put the bitter feelings behind me. It is best to do that. I am on bicycle.

Cherish the VFW

I recommend eating at the VFW (or hockey) foodstand - total quality and courteous service. I remember the days when the "real" VFW and Auxiliary people worked the place, people like Darlene Olen. I'd say "eggs over easy" and she'd relay it "over hard!" I recall this with amusement. Darlene must have insisted on eggs being over hard. I'm happy with it either way. 

I remember when we associated the VFW with the unique "Greatest Generation" of America with a background in the WWII years. We must cherish all those names. Now it's the hockey people who will prepare your eggs in the morning. "Over hard?" I really wouldn't care.

 

Addendum: I remember covering the first-ever home high school hockey game at Lee Center. We were the MAHS Tigers and not MBA Storm. I noted that the first-ever home team goal was scored by a player whose last name began with the letter "Z." And so I observed that while this player - Dan Zahl - might be used to being at the end of lists in his life, he'd always be atop the list of goal-scorers!
I hope my positivity was appreciated. 

My psyche got worn down so badly by the end of my tenure with the paper. It all seemed so unnecessary. I am not stupid. The syntax in my writing is basically good. I cast a wide net to collect lots of sports all the time. I probably spent too much time proofreading. But I ultimately was made to feel worthless as a human being. I guess the business world has to resort to this sometimes, but it's a downer. And then the company that owned the paper ended up "fleeing" Morris in effect. Rather a deficiency of character IMHO.

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com