By Chris Barber
Contributing Writer

It is not likely that the agriculture boys at Unionville High School who founded a small corn show in 1924 could have imagined what it would turn into 100 years later.

Last weekend, on its centennial, the Unionville Community Fair drew thousands of visitors -- the most in anyone’s memory.

Those visitors appeared largely local, many of them gathering in small groups and talking about their memories of the years gone by as well as their own fair experiences when they were younger.

Bonnie Musser, a past president who has been serving in a leadership positions for the fair for decades, called the reason for this year’s record-breaking attendance, “A perfect storm for success.”

“There were a lot of new people working, the social media was expanded, lots of vendors came and brought their friends, and, of course, the weather was perfect,” she said.

She was thrilled -- well aware that the fair at past times has fallen victim to rainstorms and partial closings. In fact, some people, seeing the benevolent weather forecast days ahead of the event said, “Bonnie deserves this weather.”

One parking official on Saturday afternoon estimated that the parking lot with a 500-car capacity had already turned over two-and-a-half times – and that’s with many vehicles bringing in carloads of passengers.

As for how the fair has changed over time, Musser said recently that she has endeavored to keep the fair rural and true to its traditions, although some changes are inevitable.

Whereas some other fairs have succumbed to the temptation to bring in unrelated, money-producing activities, or expensive rides, Unionville Community Fair continues to reflect the personality and the likes of its community.

At the exhibit barn, which heavily features the creative achievements and agricultural productions of its constituents, including art, needlework, cakes, corn and alfalfa things look similar year after year.

“We had 1000 more entrants than last year,” Musser said.

Some features of the fair have come and gone, such as the barbecue dinner, the senior class students cooking hamburgers, and students having days off from school to enjoy the fair. Some of the features are missed more than others.

The major attractions of the fair seem to be more popular than ever. One is the Fair Queen Pageant. The selection of a fair queen, at first called the Harvest Queen, begins a week before the major events of the fair begin. True to its roots, the coronation is still held in the elementary school, which a century ago was the only Unionville school for grades one through 12.

Originally, the queen was chosen based on her entertaining ability and charm by applause. This has evolved over time into the requirement of a speech by contestants on why they love the rural life, and the decision on who wins is made by judges.

This year the queen was Katrina Wallace, and the (younger) princess was Ellyson Ansay. The alternates were Jennifer Ding and Katelynne Bell.

In a related celebration of the centennial, Musser invited back as many queens as she could find and identified them onstage one-by-one. She succeeded in getting about 20 of them, all the way back to 98-year-old Laura Case Deckman. They stood for photos twice: once in the elementary school and then again at the fair dedication ceremony on Saturday following a queen parade in antique cars.

The fair was initially held at the Unionville school, but now it takes place on the sprawling Willowdale Steeplechase grounds along Route 926. This year, the activities took up a significant part of the acreage with scores of vendors, the car show, children’s games, entertainers, live animals, and food. Various features came along every hour, and that pleased the families. All day, every day, there were additional things to see and do.

In addition to the queen pageant, some of the events that garnered widespread and excited attention were the cow-milking contest, the Circus Incredible, the haunted house, the goats and the tractor parade.

The cow-milking contest finds the four elementary schools competing for the greatest quantity of milk achieved in 90 seconds. This year’s winner was the Pocopson Elementary School team of teacher Aron Christopher and student Eric Ozzan. They were wildly cheered by their classmates.

When asked if he had experience milking, Ozzan said, “No. I just thought I could do it.”

Another attention-getter was the Circus Incredible. This is an entertaining group that is presented by a three-person team of acrobats which entertains with Lyric Wallenda, a member of the famous, tight-rope walking Wallenda family. They performed six times during the weekend to appreciative crowds with numerous acrobatics at great heights.

The haunted house is one of the new features that has been added in recent years. It is the pet project of former fair President Ed Schultz. As he described it, the process of putting the project into motion involved many complicated aspects including training the staff, securing permits, doing the construction and the storing of parts. Children were drawn to this feature and returned again and again.

One popular event that was surprising was the tractor parade on Sunday morning. People began arriving to see it immediately at opening time, and they watched and cheered friends as a large number of vehicles drove by. There were so many vehicles that the parade lasted for 30 minutes.

Finally, over the days and hours of the fair, the goats continued to give love and attention to the visitors. They were extremely friendly and were pleased to have children and their parents pat and photograph them.

If the fair leadership continues to emphasize local creativity and agriculture, along with bringing in new ideas when they are needed, there is no stopping this beloved event from reaching a bicentennial.