As the entrance line thick with strollers snaked around the corner Sunday afternoon, three people walked out of the Chesterfield County Fair: a man carrying a wooden, chainsaw-carved bear over his shoulder, a woman with a dachshund in her arms and a boy wielding a plastic samurai sword.
By the road, under an oak tree, a county police cruiser idled, its hood popped in the heat.
“I thought it was great,” said Cathy Thomas of Chesterfield County, who was at the 100th edition of the fair with her 2½-year-old son, Noah. “I thought they had a lot of activities for younger children, which was nice.”
Noah in particular liked getting to sit in corn kernels in the children’s area, she said.
The fair brought together the homey and the exotic: Big Hubert’s Fresh Home Style Cooking — run by the Clark family, from Enon — sat catty-corner from a stand selling authentic Argentinean empanadas.
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In the Heritage Village, just down the line from the Sons of Confederate Veterans tent, though not quite to the oxen-pulled wagon rides, a blacksmith hammered out metal leaves on his anvil. Over the sound of his hammer, fairgoers could listen to Bruno Mars’ “Treasure,” playing from a ride nearby.
Also in the Heritage Village, Pope Reed, president of the Chesterfield Tractor Club, was fiddling with a hit-and-miss engine from about 1920 that he recently bought. But it wasn’t his only machine at the show.
“That was the tractor to have in 1953,” said Reed, pointing to a bright red Farmall.
The old beast could bring about 45 horsepower to bear. Now, that doesn’t sound like much, but at the time it was considered powerful, especially with a torque amplifier that allowed the tractor to trade forward speed for increased power on whatever machine — say a hay baler — it was powering. That could be done with the pull of a lever.
In addition to the bustling games, whirling rides, old-time displays and various fair foods, the event hosted merchant tables, a tent full of chickens and other displays.
“How about you sir?” a salesman in a blue polo shirt asked an older man with long white hair, a full white beard and a bright red shirt in the barn full of merchant tables. “Have you thought about replacement windows?”
Around the corner, a National Rifle Association booth, with material supporting Republican gubernatorial and lieutenant governor candidates Ken Cuccinelli and E.W. Jackson, sat across from a Kitchen Craft booth where a display operator sliced squash.
Back at the rides, Ryan Ward, 4, of Chesterfield County, was in line for his second trip on the Ferris wheel.
“We’ve had a great time,” said Jason Ward, his father, who was at the fair with his wife, Jessica, and Ryan.
“I really like that they have all the animal stuff,” Jessica Ward added.
The family saw everything from tigers to a porcupine, they said.
What was Ryan’s favorite part?
“The Ferris wheel,” he answered, of course.
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Chesterfield County Fair
Beautiful weather day greets Chesterfield County Fair.
Cameron Penn, 11, of Gloucester, Va. looks toward the ground after a spinning inversion on one of the rides along the midway at the Chesterfield County Fair on Sunday, August 25, 2013.
