August 6, 2003

Families literally live at the fair

Hundreds set up camp ground for the entire fair week

By Carol South
Herald contributing writer

      The old-fashioned aura of the fair, with its trip-back-in-time entertainment and agricultural theme, is reflected among the hundreds of camping families who spend the week on the grounds.
      Most campers at the Northwestern Michigan Fair, which runs through Saturday, are affiliated with area 4-H groups. Many come year after year to enjoy a week's vacation with friends and animals - minus the high-tech props and distractions of daily life.
      Their fun comes from card and board games, informal gab sessions and a dose of healthy romping in a safe environment. For the kids who have an animal in the fair, cleaning barns, caring for their charges and talking about their animal to curious fairgoers are the highlights of their workday.
      Margaret Mimnaugh, 18, has been camping annually at the fair for nine years. A member of the Twin Lakes 4-H group, one of the larger groups in the campground, Mimnaugh relishes her week there. The families in her group all camp together and put up a large tent with tables where they gather for meals, socializing and games. Each family in the group plans a dinner during the week and a handy portable grill helps with the cooking.
      "We all come together for breakfast, lunch and dinner," said Mimnaugh, who has a pig in the fair this year. "We all meet for cards or to go to the Midway together, it is a fun time and all the kids get together."
      Stroll through the campgrounds that line the fairground's perimeter on two sides and you'll hear talking and laughter, not televisions or cell phone chimes. Teens meet up for intense Monopoly games or to swirl through the Midway while pre-teens roam in smiling groups, checking out everything.
      "It's a shared family affair," said Karen Rennie of Cedar, whose son, Peter, 10, has chickens in the fair.
      Camped with the other members of the Wooly Wonders 4-H group, Rennie keeps in touch with her son and his friends via walkie-talkies.
      "We brought the radios so the boys could have a little more freedom," she noted. "But we could keep in touch with them."
      Camping at the fair is at record-high levels, noted camping superintendent Karen Zenner. This year, Zenner marked out more than 200 campsites, each ten-foot wide and the length varying by vehicle. Due to demand from the required pre-registration, she squeezed in sites where no camper had gone before.
      Zenner and many of the other fair volunteers stay on site during the week-long event, finding it easiest to crash just steps from where they spend their 16-hour days. She began camping onsite a week before the fair, working her day job and sleeping at the campground at night. Or trying to sleep in between her many responsibilities.
      "When I say I'm going to Prevo's, that's when I get my nap," she said of her two-week fair marathon. "Sometimes it takes me hours to get back from my shopping trips."
      Zenner said that while crowded, busy and noisy, the campers all seem to get along. She always places 4-H groups together and each group has between 10-35 youngsters, plus parents, adult leaders and siblings. She also enforces an 11 p.m. curfew but overall finds few problems throughout the week.
      'They have to get along, they're only living ten feet apart," she noted. "It's just the atmosphere of the fair, they love to be here, look forward to it all year."
      Keeping hungry fairgoers fed takes the planning of a military campaign. Not wanting to go broke buying Midway food, whose nutritional value is questionable for prolonged consumption, campers bring bulging coolers of meat, eggs, fruit, vegetables and lots and lots of snacks.
      Beverages are a priority, too, as parents see gallons of drinks disappear speedily.
      "You need a lot more food here and lots of bottled water and juices for the kids," said Trudy Galla, a member of the Wooly Wonders 4-H group, who is camping with her family at the fair for the first time this year. "The kids are so tired, they just get in bed and are out, but they wake up ready to go every morning."
      'Roughing it' is a relative term to these campers, who welcomed expanded bathroom facilities this year but rarely grumbled in the past. The addition nearly tripled the number of shower stalls from three to eight, all serving hundreds of people.
      "Even though they added on, every morning there's a race to get in early," noted Mimnaugh, a recent graduate of Traverse City Central High School.