Fair adds flair

CLEARFIELD - Donny Westcott of DuBois couldn't stop laughing as he fed live stingrays Wednesday at the Clearfield County Fair.

"That was weird," Westcott said, grabbing another piece of shrimp and submerging his hand in the tank at the Sealife Encounters exhibit on the Expo II plaza. "It was very unnatural. It tickles."

The stingray exhibit is new to the fair this year, but it's been popular so far, said Paula Culver, who co-owns Dallas, Texas-based Sealife Encounters.

"People see it, and they go and get a whole bunch of people and say, 'You have to see this,'" Culver said.

Walter and Linda Jackson of Clearfield brought Linda's sister Cindy Bell of Frenchville to the fair to see the stingrays. They saw them on their visits Monday and Tuesday. It took some encouragement, but Bell finally stuck her hand in the tank and touched one of the stingrays.

"It wasn't what I expected," Bell said. "It's not squishy like a trout; they're harder."

The 149th Clearfield County Fair has been "nice and smooth" so far, fair board manager Greg Hallstrom said.

"We've had no problems at all," Hallstrom said. "Alice Cooper was here last night, and we've had all kinds of nice reviews and comments."

Attendance is down slightly this year, Hallstrom said, and none of this year's concerts have sold out. Ticket sales for pop star Kelly Clarkson, whose show is Friday night, have been particularly slow, Hallstrom said, while fair officials thought that show would come close to selling out.

Still, concessionaire Sandy Beach of Clearfield said it's been a good year for her family's food booth, which has been a staple at the fair since 1918.

"This fair week is going surprisingly good," Beach said. "With the economy down, I didn't think people would be out as much, but this fair is shaping up nicely. From what I see, from the business we do here, we have a nice crowd out there."

Beach has been working in the booth for 60 years, since she was 7 years old. She flipped through black-and-white photographs of fairs from the 1950s, with crowds of people filling the fairgrounds.

"The fair was kind of a dress-up event then," Beach said. "Women got all dressed up and came out. There was no Internet, no movies on DVD ... it was a big deal. ... What's changed? A whole generation, a whole lifestyle. It's just like everything else. It's evolved, and it's changed."

It may have changed for some, but it remains a summertime rite for Dean Vongunden of Curwensville. He sat in the grove, talking with friend Les Albert of Mahaffey. Vongunden said he hasn't missed a fair since 1964, when he got out of the military.

He made his first trip to the fair Tuesday with his wife. He wanted to make sure he could handle the walking since he had a pacemaker and defibrillator installed last week. He'd already had his favorite fair food - a hot dog topped with coleslaw.

"I was born and raised in this town," Vongunden said. "It's just a tradition."

It's one that Joslyn Smeal of Curwensville wouldn't miss, either. The second runner-up in the Clearfield County Fair Queen contest, Smeal helped her cousin shear a sheep Wednesday afternoon while wearing a dress.

"My best friend's in 4-H, so this is my fifth or sixth year down here all week," Smeal said. "I take a week off work and come down here."

In the cattle barn, Mary Martz of Centre Hall carried on another tradition as she cared for the 28 Jersey cattle her family was showing at this year's fair. From July through September, Martz and other members of her family take their cows from Ednu-Ru Jerseys in Boalsburg to fairs throughout the state. After Clearfield, her grandfather would take some cows to the Huntingdon County Fair, and she'd take others to Clinton County.

They win a little money from the premiums, but it's mostly the camaraderie with other farmers that keeps them coming back.

"We don't make much," Martz said. "It's mostly the friends we see, the people we know and only see at the fairs."

Mirror Staff Writer Ashley Gurbal is at 946-7435.