With the zeal of the crowd and the squeal of the swine, the racing pigs were off in a cloud of dust as the first day of the 63rd annual Lake County Fair began Wednesday.
Stormin` Norman Snortkopf easily outdistanced Sad-Ham Hussein, Mikhail Gorbachop, and the world`s smartest pig, Albert Einswein, to snatch the cream- filled cookie at the finish of the day`s second race.
The fair features pig races daily at noon, 2, 4, 6, 7 and 8 p.m.
Thousands of people flocked to the sprawling fairgrounds at U.S. Highway 45 and Illinois Highway 120 in Grayslake as the five-day extravaganza was launched. The near-perfect weather attracted families, groups and exhibitors from across northern Illinois and elsewhere.
Perhaps the most ambitious visitor was an old hand at the fair. Katie Beaton brought 47 of her best friends, ages 3 to 9.
A veteran of 14 previous fairs, the director of the Mt. Prospect Nursery School Day Care Center said the fair is ”very educational” for the kids.
”One little girl asked for some Kleenex. She said the pig`s nose was running,” Beaton said, laughing. ”These are city kids, not country kids.”
Lou Veseling and his wife, Debbie, of Gurnee said they also brought daughter Megan, 7, and son Ryan, 2, for the educational part.
”She`s learning as she sees them. She loves the animals,” Lou Veseling said.
”But she wants to go on the rides first,” added Debbi Veseling wife as they waited for their children to finish the Supa Bubble, which could best be described as a giant air mattress suitable for jumping.
Adults pay $4 to enter the fair, and children under 12 get in free. Rides cost extra.
The fair also features the traditional prizes for best cow, bull, sheep, hog, goat, jams, and quilts and other handiwork.
Pam Renaker, superintendent of the domestic arts exhibit, pointed a visitor toward the winner of grand champion award in handiwork.
The perhaps unlikely winner in this bastion of distaff design was Bill Jersey, 39, of Fox Lake. His creation was a 29-inch octagonal doily that he made over six months while commuting by train to his job as a systems analyst at American National Bank in downtown Chicago.
The trip takes an hour and 25 minutes each way. Did he get any funny looks on the train as he sat there working on his doily?
”No one would sit next to me,” Jersey said, laughing.
Nearby in the goat barn, 16-year-old Dawn Barzowski was congratulating her 5-year-old doe, Happy, who had just unloaded five pounds of milk for the milking contest.
”That`s pretty good,” said Barzowski, who lives on a farm in Richmond in McHenry County. Last year, Barzowski boasted, Happy won the milking contest at the McHenry County Fair.
Before the fair is over at 9 p.m. Sunday, visitors will be entertained by horse shows, livestock auctions, talent shows, bronco wrestling, a demolition derby, tractor-pulling contests and more.
For the city slickers who have never seen a turkey that wasn`t frozen, they can browse through one of the largest buildings just as they enter the fair from the parking lot.
There under one roof are more than a thousand turkeys, chickens, doves, and other fowl and rabbits.
Taking care of the massed menagerie are the Mason triplets-Jennifer, Shannon and Heather, 16-year-olds from Grayslake. All are assistant superintendents of the poultry barn. And all are here for the fifth straight year out of loyalty to Ed Dorfler, their superintendent.
”It`s boring, really boring,” feeding and watering the feathered and furry friends, Shannon said.
”Sometimes we put eggs in the bunny cages, just for fun to see what people say,” she said.
