After 75 years, honoree no fair-weather fairgoer
Marion Wittmeyer is getting ready for her vacation.
She will spend it just the way she has for more than 75 of her 80 years — at the Erie County Fair.
And this grandmother, whose gait has slowed with arthritis, doesn’t rest much on her vacation. You will find her in the Youth Development or Creative Arts buildings, or maybe in the livestock arena, overseeing some 4-H exhibits, or judging the animal dressing contest. Or she might be sitting on a bench, enjoying the Ramblin’ Lou Family Band.
Wittmeyer, who has been a member of 4-H for 50 years, has been named this year’s Ultimate Fairgoer by the Erie County Fair, which will open at 2 p. m. Wednesday on the Hamburg fairgrounds.
She lives in the Lawtons farmhouse where her mother was born and where she herself was born in the front bedroom.
Fair week also used to be the week her father was thrashing corn, and she used to pray for rain so he would be able to take her to the fair. Her prayers were always answered.
“I loved the merry-go-round,” she said.
Wittmeyer doesn’t think her parents took her to the fair before she was 2 or 3. The only other year she missed was when it was shut down during the polio epidemic, she said.
She remembers her father driving the family 16 miles to the fair in a horse and buggy, eating a picnic lunch they brought.
“Then they’d drive the horse and buggy home. It would be dark, and they would have to milk the cows,” she said.
She and her husband of 57 years, Nelson, continued the tradition with their own children, Marcia Duffy, Mary Lou Detweiler, Michael and Mark, who was born during the fair. Wittmeyer has been a leader of the Lawtons Progressors 4-H club for 38 years, and all the children exhibited through 4-H.
One year Nelson Wittmeyer, a North Collins school bus driver for 52 years, put 900 miles on his car driving the children back and forth to the fair, coming home to work in between shows and exhibits.
“We’d pack a lunch, and they used to love sitting in the trunk of the car. We used to pull in under the trees and eat lunch,” she said.
The fair has grown bigger and longer over the years, but the animals and rides remain.
“You have to keep making things new,” said Dennis R. Lang, fair manager and chief executive officer.
New entertainment will feature the Walking Tree Man, Sea Lion Splash and Marcan Tigers of India, all free, while familiar agricultural exhibits and animals will include 420 cows. Because the price of milk is low, and dairy farmers would lose more money by bringing their cows to the fair, the fair is paying them almost twice the going rate for their milk.
Lang said he also hopes that incentives, such as free admission for children 12 and younger, will help increase attendance.
Attendance at county fairs throughout the country has increased this year, said Jim Tucker, president and chief executive officer of the International Association of Fairs and Exposition.
“I just don’t think families are traveling much this year,” he said, calling fairs affordable entertainment. “I think people are staying home.”
Except for Wittmeyer.
“That’s our vacation; we never go any place,” she said with a smile. “They laugh at me. This is my vacation.”
Gates will open at 2 p. m. Wednesday and will be open from 9 a. m. to 10:30 p. m. Thursday, through the end of the fair Aug. 23.
Admission will be $2 Wednesday, with midway rides at $2. Admission will be $4 Thursday and $5 before 11 a. m. on week days. At other times, admission will be $10 for adults and $7 for those 60 and older. Advance tickets are available for $7 for adults and $5 for those 60 and older at tickets. com locations in Tops Friendly Markets through Saturday.
Because of construction at Southwestern Boulevard and McKinley Parkway, fair officials recommend taking Route 219 to Armor Duells Road, turning left off the exit ramp and following Armor Duells to Clark Street and the fair.
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