LITCHFIELD: At 150, Fair still going strong
BY MEGHAN V. MALLOY
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 09/08/2008

LITCHFIELD -- David Byras Sr. remembers his first Litchfield Fair as though it were yesterday.

It was a Tuesday morning in October of 1939, recalled Byras, president of the Litchfield Farmers Club, the group that oversees the fair. He was 7 years old, growing up in Bowdoin as the Great Depression waned and World War II was beginning to brew overseas.

A neighbor -- and Byras' future brother-in-law -- with a potato field offered to take the boy and his brother to the Litchfield Fair if they helped him harvest the potato field.

The Byras brothers readily agreed and the neighbor held up his end of the bargain.

"We skipped school so we could go to the fair," Byras said, smiling fondly at the memory. "The midway was only a set of swings and a merry-go-round back then."

Sixty-nine years later, much about the Litchfield Fair has changed. The midway comprises dozens of games and mechanical rides, a pulling ring and exhibition hall have been erected, and the size of the fair physically has grown by leaps and bounds.

But the spirit of the Litchfield Fair -- which observed its 150th year this summer -- is the same, Byras said.

"The atmosphere has always been the same to me," he said. "It's been a time for families to get together."

It is also a time for families to start traditions.

Maddy Cornish started bringing her 5-year-old son, Samuel, to the fair because "it's just nice to come out and enjoy it. We like to come on Sundays."

Samuel was eager to sign up for the pig scramble and the kiddie pedal tractor pull.

"Now that he's getting older, he can really start to enjoy it," Cornish said.

Jerry and Jackie Dube have made it an annual tradition to attend the Litchfield Fair since moving to Sabattus three years ago. Jerry Dube enjoys seeing the horses and livestock, while his wife prefers the antiques. The couple attended Saturday and Sunday.

"I guess, really, we come to see a little bit of everything, because this fair has a little bit of everything," Jackie Dube said, as she and her husband took in a live musical act on the fair's stage.

Events were planned to mark the Litchfield Fair's 150th year. The fair's first-ever fireworks show debuted over the weekend and an old-fashioned redneck truck pull was held. Children were treated to a scavenger hunt around the fairgrounds. Drawings raffling off everything from electronics to gas grills to gift certificates were held.

The fireworks were so popular with fairgoers, the Litchfield Farmers Club is discussing having a second show next year, Byras said.

All things must come to an end, as the adage goes. Some of them, like the Litchfield Fair, only for a year; others, like Byras' tenure as fair president, permanently.

This was Byras' last fair as president. He started his involvement in 1971 as a committee member, and also served as a director on the fair's board, the vice president, and finally president in 1996.

"I have enjoyed it so much," Byras said. "There's so much time and energy people put into this fair. It would be impossible to have this without them."

Meghan V. Malloy -- 623-3811, Ext. 431

mmalloy@centralmaine.com

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