Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 16, 1979)
Page 8 Come early...see awards and buy a 4-H or FFA animal By John Nurdhcim Arrive about 5:15 p.m., so you can get a good seat for the Awards Ceremony. Sit next to your best friend of 1974. The purpose:... to see what kids are most interested in supporting. Look what John Smith gave for the best purple ratcatcher. After the awards ceremony, act like you're wandering idly around with a purpose. Look for the animal you want to buy. Chat with neighbors you haven't seen for six mouths. Partake of the scrumptious food at the Snack Shack, the fair's finest. Find a seat close to the front of the auction ring at about 7:45 p.m. This is business. Look at the other people. See how much you think they will bid. Will they bid against you? Run out at the last minute to make sure what animal you want. Get a fair order sheet that lists the sale order and placing of animals at the show. See where your animals are in the sale order. Check the animal's weight. Find out what the floor price for that day is. This tells you how much a normal, scrawny animal is worth thai day. All of these animals were raised with TLC and are obviously worth more. If you can't bear to eat your favorite, you can sell it back for the floor price. In this case you just pay the difference between what you bid and what the floor price is. What a cheap way to support those 4-H and FFA kids! Quit daydreaming; the sale is about to begin. Sit very still ; don't scratch your itchy nose. When your animal comes into the ring, start scratching your hose, stretching your ears, practicing your hand dexter ity. Oh, and there's your best friend wave at him. You will probably find that you just bought your animal, and weren't hardly even paying any attention, so be suave. ' Tell the bid spotter whether you want the animal, or want it "returned" or "turned back". If you want the animal, you will have to make cutting arrangements with your butcher, and tell the sales clerk where to send the carcass. Oh, by the way, while you're standing there talking to the sale clerk, write out a check for the animal you bought. The kids receive their money that night. The Morrow County Livestock Growers and the First National Bank of Oregon, who sponsor the sale, need you payment to guaran tee that the owners get their money. Fair Time! What a tremendous and busy time of year. But you wouldn't miss fair for any thing. If you stay there long enough, you can see everyone in Morrow County and half the rest of the state and so many exhibits to see. You can just taste Granny Smith's preserves. And that quilt reminds you of some long ago cold winter night. See that little kid with his pet clutched tightly with love. It makes you think of your own pets long since gone. Nostalgia is half of what brings us a fair each year. Fairs were originally a place to show off your farm produce and handiwork. The old-time quilting bees were a ; forerunner of the modern fairs. Today's fair may be more organized in some ways but the allure is still there. The excitement that comes from being so close to so many other people bustling around, watching closely for friends, seeing nearly forgotten old friends, meeting new ones, and looking at the myriad of exhibits. You wouldn't miss it for anything. Can you think of any other single event in Morrow County that draws so many people? Can you think of anything else that attracts so many hours of preparation? It's not all for the token premium that the exhibitors receive. Ask any exhibitor if they made money at the fair. Most will say that the prem iums just barely paid for their gas getting to the fair. Some "lucky" people with champ ions will make more than others, but is that not the reward of a champion exhibit? What else produces the allure of a fair? Fair is more than just being in the spotlight. You don't just walk into the spotlight. These kids spend many hours of work preparing for fair, getting their exhibits bough1 made, polished, baked, wash ed, fed, weighed, analyzed, running or whatever. Fair is the crowning glory for all the work that went into the exhibit. Very often, the kids learn that the more work and care they put into the project, the brighter the spotlight. So they learn values and ideals. Isn't that also called growing up? Fat stock sale starts at 7:30 Tuesday evening The annual 4-H and FFA livestock sale is scheduled for Tuesday, August 21st at 7:30 p.m. at the Fairgrounds Pavilion. FFA and 4-H members will be selling fat stock hogs, sheep and beef with Don Wink of the Northwest Livestock Commission Company, Herm iston serving as auctioneer. Wink has served as auctioneer for the fair for about 25 years. Ron Currin of the Morrow County Livestock Growers said buyers of the livestock may have the animals shipped to Hill Meat Company, and the meat cut and wrapped and delivered to their homes, courtesy of the livestock growers. The proceeds from the sale of the animals are generally used by the youth members for college expenses. Currin said the show gen erally draws a crowd for the two hour auction. Animals are shown in the ring by the individual growers. Before the sale every year, the growers call up the livestock markets and ask the bid prices of animals. Mr. Businessman Your Firm Can Save Many DeEsri A Year By Having Your Printing Done At The Gazette-Times 676-9228 hs it - ; ..-v r5K' --J' V V: -r J 1m -v t ' , s ' ' i . 1 ' . - . , ,, - , M . U 1 v . vl t r " :s. . - f, I I J - , , : f jT t " 1 ' - f M J i f W " "'. "w-wf an- r ? m ' . . ! i . '. J L 1 ' ' t ' . f . - . I - ' - . I "m H V"!-' i . t - - j i . " W ' i vv v . ' ; Each year 4-H and FFA youth wait anxiously for the Fat Stock Sale held each year during the Morrow County Fair and Rodeo. The sale' gives the youth an opportunity to recapture their investment, PLUS A LITTLE PROFIT, ON THEIR LIVESTOCK. Coordinated by the Morrow County Livestock Growers association, the sale begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 21 in the covered barn opposite the pavilion.
