Wise choices keeping Fair tradition alive
Staff Report from The Paris News
Published October 9, 2008
Red River Valley Fair 2008 was a success, capping off a decade of growth of the fair in Paris.
That success is a direct result of hard work and dedication by the fair association, fair officials and the community sponsors.
The 2008 fair has been labeled as the second best fair financially since the record fair of 2006, which means that two out of the past three fairs have reached record numbers.
A few decades ago, the fair had reached a low point in its existence and was even being considered dead by many people.
It was the dedication of a few that saved it, gave it new life and gradually built it back to one of the best fairs in the state.
It is a plus for the fair that it was able to reach near record levels in a year it ran concurrently with the massive Texas State Fair in Dallas.
Officials were wise to push the Red River Valley Fair a month farther in the year, when the weather is much better suited for fun on the midway and the fairgrounds.
Officials were wise to establish a much more family friendly fair to attract families in greater numbers.
Officials were wise to bring in acts and exhibits more attuned to youngsters than ever before.
A near record 19,440 fair visitors attended the five-day event this year, and most seemed to enjoy it so much they will return next year and perhaps bring additional fair visitors with them.
The fair lives in the minds of some of the older generation as one of their best times in life.
Red River Valley Fair officials are making sure the fair in Paris will continue that trend in the minds of today’s generation of youngsters.
The 2008 fair is an experience that will not be forgotten. |
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Sumner native Watson reminisces
by Bill Hankins
The Paris News
Published October 3, 2008
A lifetime friendship between country music star Gene Watson and Rita Jane Haynes of the Red River Valley Fair began years ago in a classroom at Central School at Sumner, where both were elementary students.
“Life has been good to me,” Watson said Thursday just before his latest performance at the fair. “I don’t care how far you go in life, good friends are hard to find. If you have somebody you can walk up to and hug their neck, and you feel it in your heart, there is nothing better, and Rita Jane is that for me.”
Their friendship started back at Central School, and Thursday they sat around a table at the fairgrounds and reminisced about the old days.
“The school didn’t have indoor plumbing,” said Haynes. “We had outhouses, and I remember when they finally built outdoor restrooms.”
“All the boys called them smokeshops,” said Watson.
For the families of the youngsters who attended Central School, there was not a lot of money, coming off the Depression and into World War II.
“I was so poor, I didn’t know I was poor, but everybody was so much closer then than nowadays,” Watson said.
The two rode the same school bus, when it could get down the often muddy road.
Haynes lived on a dairy farm, and Watson “just lived on a farm.”
“We all rode buses to school,” Watson said. “Those were some of the best times.”
It was in that old school Watson got his start in entertaining, though he did not think about that at the time.
Haynes remembers a school performance organized by music teacher “Miss Opal” in which Watson sang “How Much is That Doggy in the Window,” and classmate Jimmy Milsap, in a doggy outfit, would bark on cue.
“Miss Opal was so funny,” Watson said. “She taught music and was going to teach guitar, but she didn’t even know how to play herself. She once came to get me out of class and had me show her a chord on the guitar.”
Watson came from a musically inclined family.
His mother, sister, brother and father all played guitar, but he had to learn the hard way, just getting a little information from them at a time.
“It was embarrassing to me,” he said. “They always wanted me to sing at church, but I couldn’t play, and my sister had to play for me, so I was determined to learn to play.”
“Singing was natural to me, but playing the guitar was a little rough for me,” he said. “I finally learned enough to get by. I am not sure I was doing it out of talent, but I enjoyed it.”
It took some time for Watson’s singing talent to be recognized, and it was long after an incident in school sent him packing.
“The reason I left school was I was going to get punished,” he said. “I was going to get a whipping. A friend and I were messing around school, and we got bored and just decided to leave.”
The pair were caught and taken to school superintendant Cecil Everett’s office.
Everett informed them he was going to give them a whipping, but he wanted them to think about it overnight before he did it.
Watson rushed home and talked his dad into letting him quit school by promising to work instead.
Watson had been working at William Brothers Wrecking, tearing down old cars in Paris.
It was not long after that, he married Mattie Louise Bivens and moved to Abilene to work on the missile silos.
He was 17. She was 15.
They are still married.
“I worked on the missile silos eight months before a worker fell to his death, and I decided that was too dangerous and came back to Paris,” Watson said.
He learned to do body work on cars at Flips Garage, and worked there several years before moving to Houston.
“I had a little band, and we played night clubs on weekends and I did body work during the week,” he said. “Some guys heard me sing and asked if I would make records. They owned a small independent label. I agreed, and recorded “Bad Water,” which jumped to the top of the charts regionally. Capital Records heard it, signed me to a longtime contract and re-released the song nationally. It stayed number four on the national charts the entire year. I had recorded “Love in the Hot Afternoon” when I recorded Bad Water and it took off too.”
After that, it was only upward for Watson, whose career has spanned almost 45 years.
“I have put out more songs than I can count,” he said. “I recorded one last year and they are negotiating contracts now for me to go back and start a new one.”
He now travels and performs worldwide.
Shows last year were in New York, Canada, Sweden and Holland, and more trips to Canada and abroad are planned in the upcoming year.
Watson’s life has not always been without a downside.
When he developed cancer a few years ago, Haynes helped raise money for his treatment with a fundraiser at the fairgrounds.
“I fell in the cracks,” he said. “I did not make enough money for M.D. Anderson Hospital, and I made too much for other hospitals. Fortunately, my son knew of a doctor who was a very good one, and I did my chemotherapy in Paris.”
“So many people did so much for me,” he said. “I have been blessed. Rita Jane opened the fairgrounds to help me, and it was phenomenal.”
Then, Haynes faced a battle against cancer herself.
“I will tell you one thing, if Rita Jane calls me, I will be there for her,” Watson said.
Watson had decided never to play Paris again after what he though was mistreatment in a Paris News article about a Big Brothers Big Sisters show he played in Paris.
“I appeared on the same show as Alabama, and the newspaper said the show was a flop except for Alabama,” he said. “At that time, I had more recordings out there than Alabama, so I told myself I would never play Paris again.”
Then Haynes met him one day at Mike Bolton’s Garage and asked him if he would appear at the fairgrounds.
He agreed out of friendship, and has been headliner at the fair more than a decade, pulling in huge audiences on Thursday night, sometimes considered Gene Watson night at the fair.
Once when Merle Haggard became ill and could not perform at the fair, Haynes called Watson, who was on tour in New York.
“I asked him if he could help us out of the jam, and before you knew it, he was here and filled in,” Haynes said.
“In my estimation, if it were not for Rita Jane, this fair would be over years ago,” Watson said.
“As long as you and I are still around, we will do the fair on Thursday night,” Haynes said.
There is not much left of old Central School, just part of the dilapidated lunchroom.
It disappeared when all the small schools consolidated into North Lamar Independent School District.
The remains of Watson’s and Hayne’s old class came to the fair Thursday to see Watson play, and it was a small reunion when they got together.
“I have been gone so long, I don’t even recognize many of them, but it really is like coming home again,” Watson said.
Haynes still lives on a part of the old dairy farm. Her brother lives on another part of the farm.
“When I come through Paris, I stop and visit with her,” Watson said. “When I get a lot of things on my mind, I just have to go talk to somebody and clear my head.”
“We have spent many afternoons talking on the bleachers outside the fair office,” Haynes said. |
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Endangered species show ‘amazing’
by Bill Hankins
The Paris News
Published October 2, 2008
The Amazing Rainforest plays to a full house every performance at the Red River Valley Fair.
It is more than an entertaining show about animals.
It is about conservation and environment awareness and how most of the unique collection of 20 species of animals in the show may be disappearing from our world.
They are threatened with extinction because the rainforest they call home is rapidly disappearing.
Robert and Christy Mullen, who dreamed up the idea of bringing education and awareness of endangered animals to audiences everywhere, said Red River Valley Fair crowds have the opportunity to experience animals rarely seen in captivity, including two Bengal tigers, an Asian Fishing Cat, two western cougars, an Arctic fox, Burmese python, Columbian boa, a greenwing macaw and a military macaw.
“We share a love and admiration with these animals, and we are fortunate to have these animals as part of our lives,” Christy Mullens said.
One of the little-known facts behind the show is most of the animals displayed are rescued from life-threatened circumstances, such as the baby tigers used in filming in Canada.
“After they get too big to use as photo cats in filming, they often are euthanized,” Mike Pechacek, who works with the show, said.
Pechacek, who has been with the show three years, said creators of The Amazing Rainforest rescue every animal they can and bring them into the show.
“I love working with these animals, and I think the show has a wonderful theme,” Pechacek said.
The animals are trained by the Mullens, and perform for the audiences.
Natasha, a Bengal tiger, seems as thrilled as the audience when she is doing tricks in the ring.
The Amazing Rainforest includes an ongoing display throughout the day in addition to the performances.
The rainforest atmosphere brings visitors eye-to-eye with many rare and endangered species. The landscape includes running waterfalls, greenery and the sounds of the rainforest.
The stage show takes visitors back to an old Asian ruins, where they meet a princess on horseback (Christy Mullen) who narrates the show.
“The show will amaze and educate visitors about the amazing animals we share this planet with,” Mullen said. “The animals demonstrate their natural abilities and unique personalities.”
The Amazing Rainforest is available every day at the fair and offers two stage performances beginning at 7 p.m. |
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by Bill Hankins
The Paris News
Published
October 1, 2008
He is 9 months
old, but he has
only been out of
his mother’s
pouch one month.
He does not even
have a name yet,
and visitors to
the Red River
Valley Fair have
been called on
to give him a
name.
The tiny
kangaroo is
really a
wallaroo, a
cross between a
kangaroo and a
wallaby.
He is part of
the Camp
Junction Petting
Zoo exhibit at
the fair this
year.
In all, 42 baby
animals are part
of the exhibit
and all can be
petted and fed
by the
youngsters who
visit the fair.
The animals come
in all sizes,
from a
3-month-old
camel to the
robust miniature
Scottish
Highlander bull
named
Bullwinkle.
There also is
the very tiny
coatimundi named
Coti, who weighs
in at less than
a pound but
loves to play
almost all the
time.
The petting zoo
and a pony ride
feature attached
are the ideas of
Tammy Thompson
and Chris Marks
of Beaumont.
They raise
animals on their
65-acre farm
there, and help
teach youngsters
during
educational
visits to
schools and in
shows across
Texas.
Thompson was an
emergency room
nurse 18 years,
and while a
nurse began
taking the
animals from her
farm on
educational
adventures.
“I got started
doing this for
kids,” she said.
“This is much
better than
being an
emergency room
nurse, much more
fulfilling and
much more fun.”
Now she does 17
shows a year
across the
state.
“When we are
through here, we
will go home and
relax until
February, when
the shows start
again,” she
said.
She has been
doing shows and
educational
visits six
years.
“A veterinarian
checks all the
animals once a
month, and when
we are on the
road with them,
they get checked
once a week,”
she said.
“They are all
babies and need
care.”
The animals roam
free on the
Beaumont farm.
“The shows are
their only
confinement,”
she said.
The show at the
red River Valley
Fair has 30
sheep and goats,
a 3-year-old
camel, a
kangaroo, a
zebra, a deer
and several
other animals.
For now, Tammy
carries her baby
wallaroo around
in a large
purse-like pouch
that probably
seems like home
to the pouch
dweller.
When born the
tiny animals
find their way
to the pouch and
remain there
until they are
big enough to
take their
chances on the
outside.
The tiny,
unnamed wallaroo
now wears a tiny
diaper, but he
is sometimes
eager to hop
around in
between being
held by all
those people who
just want to
cuddle it.
A box is
available
outside the
petting cage for
youngsters to
put in name
suggestions.
The suggested
names will be
picked up by a
selection
committee at 5
p.m. Saturday,
and the name
chosen from the
suggestions will
be announced at
7 p.m. Saturday
on the fair’s
main stage.
The person whose
name suggestion
is chosen will
win a prize.
The Camp
Junction Petting
Zoo and Pony
Carousel will be
open from 6 p.m.
to 10 p.m. each
day of the fair. |
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Gardening highlights opening night of
Fair
Staff Report from The Paris
News
Published
September 30, 2008
Sessions presented by
Master Gardeners are a highlight for
fairgoers this year at the Red River Valley
Fair, which runs through Saturday. Different
topics are to be discussed each night at 7
p.m. and 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.
Canned goods, cut flowers, and potted plants
are on display in Building B at the Lamar
County Fairgrounds with a section devoted to
entries by youth 18 and under. One exhibitor
dubbed this “the year of the pepper“ due to
the size and variety of peppers produced by
area growers this year.
Each night visitors can browse educational
displays, ask horticulture-related
questions, and attend 15-minute
presentations on gardening topics at 7 p.m.
and 8 p.m.
A presentation schedule follows.
•Problems growing Irises with Jackie Neugent
on Tuesday;
•Growing Like a Star with Don Still on
Wednesday;
•Fairy Gardens with Helen Ressler on
Thursday;
•Using Homegrown Basil with Caryn Resnick on
Friday.
On Saturday, Wanona Carlton will conduct a
special program for young gardeners (12 and
under) at 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., followed at 4
p.m. and 5 p.m. by Self-Watering Propagator
by Frances Robinson, and at 7 p.m. and 8
p.m. with a program on EarthKind Roses by
Marva Sansing. |
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