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The county fair is home to such competitions as cattle shows, tractor pulls, demolition derbies, pie auctions, and goat-milking contests. I admit that my sister author Hilda rose victorious when we battled one another last weekend in the goat-milking competition at the Racine County Fair. Oh, the humiliation we authors must suffer in search of publicity for our books. Other than being soundly defeated in the competition, I had a lovely day at the fair.
Our book tent featured an antique drum carder which fairgoers could crank to card wool for bookmark tassels. We also had live music–our own fiddler Matt Lutze, Hilda on penny whistle, and editor Phil Martin on accordion. We saw familiar faces and met new readers as people stopped by to purchase a book or find out more about Plank Road Summer. Even the Fair Royalty visited our booth to add planks to the road we were building.
During every summer of our childhood Hilda and I spent five days at the Racine County Fair. During the weeks prior to the fair we practiced showing our sheep, refinished furniture, sewed clothes, or worked on whatever other 4-H projects were to be entered into competition. In our day, we could hardly take five steps at the fair without seeing someone we knew. The fair was a community celebration, and everyone wanted to be part of it.
In Plank Road Summer this is the spirit we hope to communicate in our depiction of the first Racine County Fair. I confess that after my defeat in the goat-milking contest, I am feeling a bit like the loser of the horse race. But strike up the music– in a true community celebration, no matter who wins or loses, everyone can join in the dance.
The Racine County Fair, that is. This weekend, Hilda and Emily Demuth, co-authors of Plank Road Summer, will be at the Racine County Fair in Union Grove, Wisconsin, on Saturday, August 1 (12-5 pm), to sign books and host some fun family activities.
Be sure to stop by their program tent on Saturday afternoon (it’s on the NE corner of Polley Drive and Creuziger Lane, near the Case exhibit, by Gate 5). For other events and directions, see the Racine County Fair website.
Why we’re excited: a major event in Plank Road Summer is . . . (drum roll, please) the first Racine County Fair! It was held in the early 1850s just west of the Mather Inn (one of the key places in the book).
Like the county fair itself, Plank Road Summer celebrates the community spirit and the rich heritage of the pioneer Midwest.
Hilda, Emily, and friends will be there Saturday from 12 to 5 pm. Besides signing books, they’re hosting wool-carding on an antique drum carder, a bit of live old-time fiddle music, and a display on Racine County history.
So come on down to the fair! Enjoy the rides, the 4-H exhibits . . . and meet the authors of this exciting novel for kids about county fairs, pioneer life, plank roads, fugitive slaves . . . and more!
From Plank Road Summer:
Even though she had watched the preparations day by day, Florence was still astonished at her first sight of the Racine County Fair. The north end of the Doanes’ front forty was lined with nearly a hundred wagons and buggies. The clamor of livestock provided a constant accompaniment to all the other goings-on.
Among the dozen enormous tents, Florence could pick out the dinner tent in which ladies of the Scotch Settlement church and the Methodist chapel were working together to feed hungry fairgoers. Next to the dinner tent stood a dance platform where a fiddler sawed a merry tune. Florence remembered someone’s claim that there would be enough players that the music at the fair would never end.
Mrs. Mather led the way to the domestic skills exhibits, which were flanked by a brilliant wall of quilts swaying on a line strung between two tents.
(As you may know, quilts and quilting also play a big role in the book!)
Hope to see you this weekend!
