It’s underway!
The 100th Box Butte County Fair in Hemingford, Nebraska, USA.
100 Years of Countless Memories.
Let me recount a few.
I love county fair season.
I vividly remember the Lancaster County and Saunders County fairs I attended and participated in as a child.
Remote radio broadcasts from the Dawson County Fair in Lexington and for several years at the Box Butte County Fair in Hemingford certainly highlight by 30-year career in radio broadcasting.
I’ve served as the emcee for the queen contest for several years. Working with the contestants has certainly enhanced my fair memories.
The summer of 1968 was my first opportunity to show livestock at the Lancaster County Fair in Lincoln.
I had joined 4-H in January, and Dad purchased a Hereford steer that I named Duke.
The county fair was held on the Nebraska State Fairgrounds, and the beef show ring was in the middle of a huge arena that seated several hundred people.
This was a day I had long awaited, but when I walked Duke into the ring, his halter unfastened.
I stood there frozen in a state of shock.
Fortunately, Duke didn’t move. The beef judge calmly took the harness and put it back together and directed me to lead Duke around the ring.
The Judge gave me a red ribbon for my efforts, which was disappointing.
Grandpa Henry Horn had been watching from the stands, and he met me afterwards and informed me I looked as white as a sheet. Grandpa was laughing, and I didn’t know how to respond. I knew he was right because I was scared to death. Fortunately, my later experiences in a livestock show ring would be more positive and filled with less drama.
I later would show sheep and hogs at both the Lancaster County Fair and the Nebraska State Fair.
In 1976, I was named the top hog showman at the Lancaster County Fair.
My most vivid memory?
Throughout the month of August 1992, my relationship with Miss Cynthia Jensen of Hemingford continued to grow. She invited me over to her Hemingford house for chicken stir-fry the Friday night of the Box Butte County Fair, which proved to be the date that cemented our relationship.
Why?
As I was getting ready to leave her house, I grabbed her hand and gave her a kiss. She didn’t fight it off, and this reserved, small-town, homespun music educator kissed me back. My heart’s rhythm increased from whole note beats to quarter note thumps!
Cynthia and I began seeing each other almost every night until school started, and then I would drive to Hemingford two or three times a week to pay her a visit.
I had a pretty good idea that she considered me more than a sweet nuisance when I would visit her at her mother’s home five miles northwest of Alliance. When it was time for me to leave for the evening, Cynthia agreed to hide with me behind some large pine trees west of her mom’s house. If my future mother-in-law was spying on us through her kitchen window, the pine trees prevented her from seeing Cynthia and I share good night kisses.
May the 2025 Box Bute County Fair provide you with these kinds of wonderful memories.