walking through Clinton County 4H Fair, July 27-31, 2015

The trend to live in cities rather than farms began with the factory jobs offered when industrial power and methods of producing and distributing goods took off in the middle and later 1800s. For middle Michigan, perhaps the process of urbanization was slower. And while automobile factories drew shift workers from surrounding bedroom communities, the local livestock auctions and farm servicing companies carried on until the Great Depression and WWII conscription and war production pulled even more off the farmland. And yet during all these years the 4H movement established itself, originally as a way to introduce new methods and infrastructure to farmers by getting the kids to learn in the local clubs. But the times changed and unified TV viewing experience of a few channels expanded with video tapes and then DVD recordings, followed by a cable channel plethora and then Internet and most recently streaming services. With these competing sources of information and entertainment, the delight from face-to-face, cooperative effort seemed to be displaced or somehow was less insistent than the blinking and beeping electricity-powered sources for spending one's time.
       This walkthough of the fair grounds mid-morning and mid-week (Wednesday) shows a quieter scene that one might have seen 15 or 30 years earlier when summer vacations consisted of local kids looking for interesting things to say, do, or watch.
       Highlights include passing glimpses of the dairy pavilion (left hand side) and the viewing stands (right hand side) while the young people in the ring are showing their quaffed and cleaned animals to the judges for comment and evaluation.