Commentary by Brian Mittge / For The Chronicle

It’s hard not to feel excited about the world and our community when strolling through the Southwest Washington Fair.

This week I had the opportunity to spend some time at the fair and I left full of energy and optimism.

I strolled through the barns and was simply delighted to see the children with their cows and goats, pigs and chickens, rabbits and horses.

I watched these hardworking children scrub and shovel, smile and snooze, brush and bridle, laugh and lounge, cuddle and rock. I saw in their proud care of their animals and their joy in their fellow pet owners the mixture of hard work, practicality and conviviality that recalls the old days in Lewis County.

These children may seem small compared to their cattle or pigs, but they have everything under control. They are competent and have already accomplished a lot, which gives them the appearance of adults. They sell their animals at the livestock auction for maybe $10 a pound and pocket a few thousand dollars. They feed someone and make money from their honest work. There is some goodness even in the slight sadness they probably feel knowing that their animal’s life will end the same way that farm animals have always done. More modern and sensitive people might resent this, but not these young people. Lewis County still produces farm children, thank God.

The fair is also an opportunity to connect with my own children through the rides. My children are still (just) young enough to really want their dad to ride with them, and I’m still (just) young enough to be silly and brave enough to say yes. At least for a few rides.

Time needs to the new meaning at the trade fair.

I ran into an old acquaintance I’ve known for decades but never really talked to. We ended up walking down the Midway and talking about kids, jobs, and where life had taken us. We talked for half an hour or an hour and a half. It’s hard to say when you’re on Fair Time.

If you run into someone near the Saloon Stage and don’t really have anywhere else to go, you have the freedom to just sit down and chat. As I was doing this with a friend, another stopped by to thank me for something nice one of my children had done for one of hers. It was a simple moment, but the dense fabric of our rich community life is made up of thousands of small moments of such connections.

The fair brings bringing the lives of old and young together. Opening the fair on stage were loyal volunteers Jerry Owens and Lee Coumbs, who have together served for over a century and bring the fair to life.

The timelessness of the fair was also evident in the evening’s presentation of the new Little Miss Friendly. Owens was able to introduce two young women who have taken over the leadership of this entertaining program.

The good times continue as new generations take on the role of servant leadership. That’s why we can have beautiful things!

With all the ups and downs of business, politics, social issues and social media, the fair reminds us that we are bigger than all of this.

We still have these old-fashioned events as some may see them, and we still love them. We have princesses from all over the country (from Onalaska’s Apple Harvest to Morton’s Lumberjack Jubilee) showing up with their tiaras and sashes – little girls and young women carrying the love of their communities, encouraged to dream, and destined to carry the hopes of their elders and peers. These smiling youths wave and hand out stickers. They carry the legacy of the lumberjacks and apple trees planted generations ago to feed those future children.

At the fair we meet old friends again and have the chance to really see each other outside the hustle and bustle of everyday life. In the unstoppable flow of the years, the fair is a rock in the current that keeps coming back. You can never stand in the same river twice, the old saying goes, but the endless one-way flow of time seems to take a circular detour when it comes to the fair.

There is a lot of life in this old exhibition center. It is old-fashioned, but still shaping the future. I hope it will be here more or less unchanged long after I am gone.

I am grateful to be able to step onto the Midway again and leave that time behind me.

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If Brian Mittge is not at the show, you can reach him at [email protected].