Family Farm Friday #82: 20 Years Ago Today

"Songs and smells will bring you back to a moment in time more than anything else. It's amazing how much can be conjured with a few notes of a song or a solitary whiff of a room. A song you didn't even pay attention to at the time, a place that you didn't even know had a particular smell.”   ~ Emily Giffin, Something Borrowed

20 years ago today, I walked into the show ring at my first county fair.  I mostly got beat, but somehow pulled off a red 2nd place ribbon and made the sale with a blackface lamb that totally knocked me down, ran me over, and drug me across the ring.  And just like that, I was hooked.

For the next 10 years, my life was pretty much consumed with livestock shows and long nights at the barn and trips to buy lambs. 

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2000 (again)

2000 (again)

2001

2001 (again)

2002

2003

2003 (again)

There were belt buckles and purple banners and sale checks to put in the bank.  There were lessons about which guards to use when clipping pigs (and mostly which ones NOT to use) and learning fractions because you had to feed the finewools 3/4 of a can all summer, and knowing more about ringworm than anyone ever should.  There is the feeling in my stomach I still get to this day when I smell sawdust and Revive, and lucky halters, and wash rack moments.There is the way that my dad, brother and I can give you a complete run down of an animal we had 20 years ago upon hearing the names "Walter" or "Harley" or "Daisy."  I could spout off all of the things that showing does for kids....teaches them to balance a checkbook and work a budget and care for another living thing and make sacrifices. 

And those things are great.  All of them.

But without hesitation, I will tell you that the biggest gift that walking into that show ring 20 years ago gave me:  Relationships.  The ag teacher with whom I spent countless hours at shows or sales or in the barn getting ready for shows or sales and who was like a second father to me.  Wade who was always in our corner at every show.  Eric who always made sure our pens were together and sheared every white sheep I ever showed, even though he didn't have to.  The other ag teachers who would sit around and drink coffee and play dominoes.  First Valentine who was always the first one to start up a game of spoons in the pig barn.  BFF who I met at his first county fair 19 years ago.  Opie and First Valentine's Brother who showed countless lambs for us when we had extra in the same class. Teacher Friend who saved us the best bunks in the State Fair dorms every year--in the back, farthest from the bathrooms.  The Little Blonde Kid who I took for ice cream before the State Fair sale.  My brother with whom I could have a complete conversation with one of us inside the ring and another on the rail without a single word being spoken.  With the other exhibitors and their parents who turned into this big, sometimes dysfunctional showing family.  My own parents and brother with whom I spent at least 2.5 hours per night (usually more) in the show barn every April - October.

20 years later, I couldn't imagine my life without these people and those memories.  I preach this all the time, but I firmly believe that there are no better organizations for kids to be involved in than 4-H and FFA, and within those, no better activity than the show program.  I've got 20 years worth of friends (and photos of bad hair cuts and questionable fashion choices!) to prove it.