Wednesday, August 03, 2011

Brodhead Fair in Brodhead, Kentucky

 Last night Jimmy and I decided to go to the Brodhead Fair in Brodhead, Kentucky.  I had never been to it, but Jimmy had told me many stories about his youthful days spent having fun at the fair.  He would save his money that he earned working in tobacco or hay all summer just to be able to go to the Brodhead Fair.
 This is the first thing I saw when we first entered the gates of the fair.  A great big beautiful mule.  Someone said that he was about 19 and a half hands high and I'm assuming that this is a pretty big mule.  I really don't know much about mules, but now I know how strong they are.
It was surprising to find so many family members at the fair.  The first ones we ran into were Brian, Reva, Brandon, Jessi and Makayla.  The camel kept trying to hog up all of the food from Makayla's hands and I'm not sure if Brian was trying to keep the young camel away or trying to pet it :)
 The small camel just wanted to see what was in Reva's hand.  It was just a baby camel, but on the other side of the petting zoo there was a large camel taking people for camel rides.  I asked Makayla if she wanted to ride the big camel but she said no.  Brian, Reva and Makayla went on to the rides from here, and Jimmy and I went to find something to drink and of course some cotton candy to eat while we watched the Mule Pull.
 These were smaller mules trying to pull a light load of blocks, and by the end of the contest, that sled was filled to the top with concrete blocks that only larger, stronger mules could pull.
 All the light weight mules, the 2500 pounds and under, competed until only one set of mules could pull that sled.  They had to pull it 20 feet and then the announcer would yell, "pull pull," and the mules would stop.  Some mules didn't pay any attention to the announcer and kept on pulling the load for 30, 40, 50 feet or until they would run into the closed gates at each end of the arena.  After the light weight category finished, the heavy weights came out and did the same thing...pull heavy loads.
All the men standing around those blocks weren't just standing there to get a better view.  They were there to help load the wagon with the concrete blocks.  See all the stacks of blocks in the picture?  They were loaded into the sled a few at a time to make it heavier each time the mules got another turn to pull.  I kind of felt sorry for the mules sometimes because they were tugging with all their might and sometimes couldn't budge the sled at all.
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 The young camel heard the sound of someone putting a quarter into what looked like a gum ball machine and rushed over to that machine to startle some other young child as they held their tiny hands under the spout to catch the pet food.  This gave Makayla a chance to feed the tiny goats in peace.
This was the first mule pull I had ever been to and I had plenty of people trying to explain to me how it all worked.  As we approached the stands to find a seat we found lots of Jimmy's cousins and friends all sitting together so we sat down with them.  It was like going to the family reunion all over again.  The Ball Family Reunion was held last Sunday and all those that were in the stands had been to the family reunion.  Bobby Ball has a birthday this weekend and they will all be celebrating with their yearly mule ride ending with a feast over this coming weekend.

I had fun at the fair and it goes on for a week with different events every night, and lots of good food and rides for the kids.  This fair is a little larger than most small fairs that I've been to and I came home with a GREAT BIG polish sausage smothered with onions and peppers sandwich on a bun, and 2 bags of cotton candy.  I got to share the evening with family, near & far (Laurel) and with friends.  What more could I ask for?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like the camel:)

Sandy Hatcher-Wallace said...

You would have liked the camel rides too. I couldn't get anyone to ride the large camel so that I could take their picture.