Thursday, August 19, 1999
State fair beckons exhibitors
BY AMY CAPPIELLO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
While many think of the Ferris wheel, fun house and cotton candy when they think of the Kentucky State Fair, the backbone of the 11-day event is still the exhibits.
Nearly 150 Northern Kentucky residents will be heading to Louisville in the coming days to display their livestock, handicrafts and home cooking to a panel of judges and crowd of onlookers at the 97th annual state fair, which opens today.
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IF YOU GO
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• What: Kentucky State Fair.
• When: Through Aug. 29.
• Where: Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center, junction of Interstates 65 and 264 in Louisville.
• Hours: Gates open daily at 7 a.m. Exhibit buildings are open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. The Thrillway is open weekdays from 3 p.m. to closing, and Saturday and Sunday from noon until closing.
• Costs: Adults $6; children and seniors $2; parking $3.
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This year, contestants could enter 28 categories, including antiques, culinary, dairy cattle, home-brewed beer and swine.
Entries tend to be a family affair. Four members of the Brinkman family from Covington are putting the 10 rabbits they raised on display at the fair this weekend. Ten-year-old twins Karen and Kimberly and their 7-year-old twin brothers Eric and Steven will be displaying long-
eared rabbits called minilops that they raised with the help of their father, David. The girls started taking care of the animals six years ago, the first year they entered the fair.
“We got the rabbits from my brother, who at one time was second in the country in a different breed,” Mr. Brinkman said. “The girls just wanted a rabbit, and he gave them a long-eared one.”
That spawned a love for the animals that has kept the family raising them ever since. Most of the rabbits are sold to pet shops, but the best of the lot are kept for Brinkman fair entries.
When the kids were younger, Mr. Brinkman found that he did a lot of the work associated with taking care of the rabbits. But this year things have changed.
“They're working in teams now to do a lot of the work,” he said. “One girl will feed them and a boy will water them. I just maybe do it once a week.”
Over the years, the Brinkmans' rabbits have won many awards and small cash prizes. But Mr. Brinkman says money has very little to do with his family's fair entries.
“The money's not really what we go after,” he said. “I made a plaque with all the ribbons on it, about 12, and the kids really get a kick out of it. They take it in for show and tell.”
Not everyone who enters something in the state fair is a tried-and-true champion, though. Erlanger resident Jeanne B. Haley has been weaving for 25 years, but this year, for the first time, she entered a pink and white table runner. If it weren't for her husband, Mrs. Haley said, she never would have entered anything in the fair.
“I just do this for my own entertainment. I don't need anyone to see it,” said the retired Internal Revenue Service employee. “People ask me to weave stuff for them, but I say no. Once you start doing that, it's not a hobby; it's work.”
Her husband, James, urged her to send in something that could accompany his painting of a steamboat down to Louisville.
For nearly 70 years, Mr. Haley has been enamored of steamboats. The fascination began in 1930 when, at the age of 12, he moved to Augusta, Ky., with his family and saw his first steamboat, the Tom Greene. He started drawing the boats soon after, and in 1952 started buying pictures of steamboats so he could draw pictures with more detail. The Tom Greene and Delta Queen, where he and Jeanne met in 1961, are among his most featured steamboats.
Mr. Haley has never stopped trying to improve his art, though, and takes lessons at the Rosebrook Art Center in Florence. He's very modest about his chances of taking home an award from the fair.
“I'm not coming home with any ribbons. I know that,” he said before smiling at his wife. “She might, though.”
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