Crews prepare for opening day

Dale Ostwalt says just about anything you have under or above your kitchen sink can help your tomatoes grow juicier, your string beans grow longer and just about anything else in your garden grow fatter.

“I put ammonia, syrup, a can of Coke and a can of beer in the ground when I plant them,” Ostwalt said, as he lugged samples of wares with his green thumbprint on them into one of the exhibition halls at the Iredell Fairgrounds on Sunday afternoon.

“Oh, and don’t forget the Listerine and the hot sauce,” he added. “They help keep the bugs and unwanted bacteria off them.”

Ostwalt was entering about two dozen different vegetables in the Iredell County Agricultural Fair, which begins today and runs through Saturday.

On Sunday, the fairgrounds were bustling with final preparations.

Down one aisle in an exhibition hall, some members of the county’s Democratic Party were hanging a banner over the organization’s booth, and a group of Future Farmers of America students from Crossroads Christian School were actually putting its sign together.

Daphne Houchins, an 11th-grader at Crossroads Christian, was working up a sweat trying to get the letters to line up.
“I think we have to redo this,” she said. “I don’t think it’s going to fit right.”

Houchins and her kid sister Elissa, a sixth-grader at Crossroads, plan on working on the family farm when it comes time to enter the so-called “real world.”

The Houchins’ have about 175 head of dairy cattle on the family’s 450-acre farm.

“We’ve always been farmers,” Daphne said. “So I guess that’s what we are going keep doing. But I like it.”

Caleb Wooten, a 10th-grader at Crossroads Christian, is not shooting for anything as elaborate as the Houchins’ spread.

“I just want small little farm,” he said, “with maybe a few cows and a goat or two.”

Outside the exhibition halls, things decidedly less agricultural were taking form.

Billy Clarke, the owner of Smokey Mountain Amusements, was taking a breather after a typically stressful night.

“I had to go out to Burlington at 3 o’clock in the morning to pick up some of my rides,” Clarke said. “But that’s the way this business is. It’s all about setting it up and taking it down and moving it off to the next place.”

Clarke, who took over Smokey Mountain Amusements nine years ago when the man he worked for died suddenly, has been in the business for a half-century.

“I left home at 16 and started doing this,” he said. “That was 1957, so I’m in my 51st year.”

Clarke and Smokey Mountain Amusements have been supplying the majority of rides for the Iredell County Fair for the past 14 years.

“It’s a hard life; there is no kidding about that,” he said. “I think now the toughest part is keeping good people.”

Clarke said it takes between 30 and 35 men to set up, run and tear down his many rides.

“But in all the time I have done this, we have never missed an opening night,” he said. “We bust our butts and get it done and do what it takes.”

Clarke said he owns all but one of the rides and some of the other features at the fair. He contracts out most of the games and food booths.

One of those contractors is Jack Lewis, who has been in the carnival business for 44 years.

“We are like a community,” said Lewis, 72. “We all know each other and our families all know each other. It really becomes part of who you are.”

At 22, Alicia Daughtry has already spent one-third of her life in the business.

Daughtry, who owns two prize-winning games and a food stand, sort of inherited the business from her father.

She says she has too much in the amusement business to think about doing anything else.

“I’ve invested all this time,” she said. “I’ve got to make it pay off.”

That’s what the gardner Ostwalt is thinking.

“Sure, I’m hoping to win a prize,” he said while pointing out the differences between a Russian tomato and Big Boy tomato.
He also had one last tip for those aspiring to take home a blue ribbon.

“Keep as much of the stem on as you can,” he said. “It makes them hold out a little better and last a little longer.”

General admission for the Iredell County Agricultural Fair is $5 per night. Rides are $15 for unlimited use.

Jim Head, of the Statesville Kiwanis Club, is the fair manager. He said the weather is expected to hold out for the week and organizers are expecting a total draw of more than 50,000 for the six nights.

“This year, I don’t even think the fair can bring us rain,” Head said. “So I think we are going to have some good crowds.”

Rides and shows open at 5 p.m on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and at noon on Saturday.

-