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OUR OPINION
“I love it when our town does this stuff.” That was my 11-year-old daughter Zoey when she, my 8-year-old son Cooper and I walked into the Pend Oreille County Fair Friday night to watch the rodeo. We ate cotton candy and elephant ears for dinner, stood for the National Anthem, cheered the cowgirls and cowboys and shivered in the unseasonable cool weather. It was a great time.
We came back the next day to wander through the barns, checking out the pigs (they’re a lot bigger than you think they’re going to be!), goats, cattle, chickens, ducks, turkeys and rabbits. Zoey and Cooper both decided they want to give 4-H a shot. (Where we’ll keep the giant pig is still yet to be determined.)
I grew up in Spokane and went to the Spokane Interstate Fair most years, but we went to that for the rides. We’d ride the Zipper and Ring of Fire until we felt like throwing up the cotton candy and elephant ears we’d eaten for dinner.
While the Pend Oreille County Fair doesn’t have rides, we think it’s just as much fun.
All the kids who show their animals at the fair work so hard, and you can see the concentration and determination on their faces. They spend months tending to their animals every day. They learn finances, responsibility, science, and work ethic. It’s really stunning.
I’ve been covering events like the fair, community festivals and high school sports for a couple decades now. I used to do it alone with my camera. Now I get to take my kids and sometimes my husband. We always have fun, and I’m so proud that Zoey and Cooper appreciate what our communities have to offer.
Wish us luck raising that pig.
-MCN
