It's billed as "the 11 best days of summer." But who's to say the Maryland State Fair's slogan is anything more than advertising hype? The 121st fair - which begins tomorrow in Timonium and runs through Sept. 2 - offers agricultural displays, home arts, musical entertainment, thrill rides, all sorts of competitions and delectable food.
The fair showcases traditions that reach back to its inception, such as the livestock shows and horse racing, as well as more modern events, including the NASA robotics competition and one of this year's new features, the Xtreme Air Stunt Show.
All that's well and good and then some, but is the State Fair truly the 11 best days of summer? We really wanted to know, so we asked 11 "unbiased experts," ranging from a farm-queen contestant to the fair's general manager. The answer each gave: a resounding yes.
Following are their stories and some reflections on what the fair means to them.
The farm queen
Kristen Willie is certain this will be her best State Fair ever.
Over the past 11 years, the 18-year-old has entered pigs, sheep, dogs and horses in competitions at the fair.
This year, it's just Willie and a single pig. But as the Howard County farm queen and an entrant in the State Fair farm-queen contest, Willie will have more than enough to do over the next 11 days.
She was surprised and pleased to be chosen from among the six candidates in the Howard contest, and she has high hopes for winning the Maryland Farm Bureau Queen Contest. But she says she'll be happy no matter the outcome because "You don't always win the blue ribbon."
The contest, which features candidates from every county that cares to participate, begins at 7 p.m. tomorrow in the Horse Sales Pavilion.
The sash and tiara that Willie wears may have changed how others perceive her, but the glittery accessories haven't altered the Glenwood resident a bit. If a wayward fair pig crosses her path or a young 4-H'er loses control of a lamb, Willie swears she'll jump right in to help, just like always.
"I'm not just gonna stand there 'cause I'm in a dress," she says. "I'm gonna help you. I like to be involved."
The jockey
When Mark Rosenthal was growing up, his father was a jockey's agent. When the races started in Timonium each summer, Rosenthal and his parents would spend the day at the track and the evening at the fair.
"I loved going to the track, and the fair was like a bonus," recalls Rosenthal, a 29-year-old Sykesville resident.
Today, he cherishes the experience even more. A professional jockey with a decade in the business under his belt, Rosenthal will ride in six to nine races each day of the fair's eight-day race schedule, which begins Saturday. His wife, Gina, works at the track. Their young sons, Anthony and Gino, often tag along for fun.
Two years ago, Rosenthal won five races in a day - "the best day I've had over there."
The purse at Timonium isn't typically as large as that at other area tracks, and the horses might not always be the fastest around, but for short-track racing (five-eighths of a mile), the State Fair can't be beat, Rosenthal says.
"It's more of a laid-back, fun atmosphere," he adds. "It's always fun to ride there. I tend to have pretty good meets."
The 4-H parent
Yesterday, Mary Thomas took the day off to drive her two sons and their various 4-H projects from the family's home in Pasadena to the State Fair. Thomas, 43, says she counts the hours she spends on 4-H activities as some of the best time she shares with her family.
This year's fair is the fifth for 12-year-old Brandon and the first for 9-year-old Jason.
The boys have insect collections on display in the 4-H/Home Arts Building as well as photographs and crafts projects. The family, including dad Ethan, will drive back to Timonium over the weekend to see how the boys' entries fared.
"The first thing Brandon always looks at is what kind of ribbon he got on his entomology project," Mary Thomas says with a chuckle. "And Jason's really excited because he's watched his brother do this for four years, and now it's his turn."
The futurity winner
It's been called a breeder's cup for dairy cattle. To outsiders who stumble into the Cow Palace during the Maryland Holstein Association's annual futurity, the event probably looks like a debutante ball for bovines. The lights are dimmed. The cows are gussied up, their coats shiny and their tails teased. The hopefuls and their handlers are led around the spotlighted ring by a master of ceremonies driving a historic convertible.
The event is one of Nona Schwartzbeck's favorite times at the fair. The Holstein futurity (8 p.m. Sept. 1) recognizes the animal judged to be the most like the ideal Holstein cow.
Schwartzbeck and her husband, Joe, started showing dairy cattle at the State Fair 37 years ago. Today, three generations of Schwartzbecks come to Timonium from Peace and Plenty Farm in Union Bridge.
The Schwartzbecks have won the futurity four times - including a "three-peat," in 1993, 1994 and 1995, that has yet to be topped. "It's an honor to be able to breed that quality of animal year after year," Nona Schwartzbeck says.
Schwartzbeck, 57, is unashamedly sentimental when it comes to the futurity.
"I love all the hoopla that goes with it. It's just a very, very special night."
The robot maker
Leo Malyutin is a high-tech guy on the fast track. "I'm hard-core into computer science, computer engineering and the technical field," the 17-year-old president of Maryland Robotics says.
For Malyutin and the other robotics team members from around the Eastern seaboard, nothing at the State Fair is more exciting than the NASA/FIRST Robotics Display and "Zone Zeal" High School Robotics Competition. This is the second year the contest has been held at the State Fair.
Entrants in the national engineering event construct a robot from the same set of materials and within a given set of parameters. They then must teach the robot strategies necessary to win the game that is the hallmark of the competition.
For most of the Maryland Robotics team members, the project is far more than just an extracurricular activity. With a budget of $35,000 and sponsorship from entities such as the Goddard Space Flight Center, Lockheed Martin and Tesco Technologies, the Parkville-based team runs like a modern- day corporation. And the students who participate are learning valuable lessons in business, Malyutin says.
Plus, "It's just pure fun," he says.
This year's event will include a "show-off" day Aug. 30 (when the robots demonstrate their skills), as well as three days of competition, Aug. 31-Sept. 2.
Malyutin says he and members of the five other Maryland teams are looking forward to demonstrating their sport before a hometown crowd.
"Anybody I've ever told about robotics is going to be there," the Owings Mills resident says.
The food vendor
In 1985, a handful of Maryland farmers set up a "little tent" at the State Fair to promote their home-grown products. Seventeen years later, Stan Dabkowski's head spins when he thinks about the number of meals served at the Maryland Foods Pavilion every year.
Dabkowski, 47, operates a produce market at Spring Meadow Farms in Arcadia and serves as pavilion chairman.
"On our biggest days, we've sold close to 2,000 ears of corn and 2,000 to 3,000 orders of french fries," he says.
Corn is picked each morning, delivered to the fair, husked and cooked. Fresh potatoes are washed, cut and fried.
Fair-goers flock to the pavilion for the soft-shell crab sandwiches, the barbecued chicken and the smoked turkey.
They snap up free samples of yellow watermelon and lean Maryland-raised lamb. Lines for beef and pork entrees often snake out onto the midway.
The pavilion's paid staff - almost all of whom are affiliated with farm organizations or privately owned agricultural operations - work 12-hour shifts each day of the fair. But they don't mind.
"The fair's been a blessing that's kept [many farmers] in business," Dabkowski says. "In tough years, the fair comes through to fill a gap."
The urban 4-H'er
Kara Sivels lives in Randallstown, so it's not surprising that when she tells acquaintances in her suburban neighborhood about her 4-H projects and the contests she enters at the State Fair, she often has to backtrack to the beginning of the conversation and explain 4-H.
Though she lives in Baltimore County, Kara is a member of the Baltimore City 4-H program, for which her mother works as a Cooperative Extension Service educator.
Teresa Sivels persuaded Kara to join 4-H, but she doesn't have to press her 14-year-old daughter about staying in the program or entering projects in the State Fair.
"4-H is a great opportunity to compete in a wide range of events," Kara says, sounding far more poised than her years. "It means a lot to me to have a chance to put my creativity to use."
This year, Kara has entered photographs, two ceramic pieces and her collection of houseplants in the fair. Over the past three years, she has mastered the balance between water and sunlight, and her plants have won their share of first-place ribbons.
The teen-ager enjoys finishing well, but finds herself more challenged when she doesn't. At every fair, she evaluates her outcomes. "If I got this place this time," Kara says, "I figure what I have to do to get the next [higher] place next time."
The beekeeper
The much-maligned honey bee may have no greater champion than Jerry Fischer. And Fischer, 64, is never happier extolling the merits of bees than when he is at the State Fair.
For 18 years, Fischer has been packing up bees and bringing them to the State Fair so that people can see firsthand "how gentle and docile they are."
Standing in the screened room inside the Farm and Garden Building that houses a working beehive, he keeps visitors in rapt attention as he throws out statistic after statistic.
"If you say you've been stung by a bee, usually you've been stung by a yellow jacket, hornet or wasp," Fischer says. "Honey bees are not aggressive."
A bee inspector for the state of Maryland, who keeps hives of his own at his Rosedale home, Fischer believes education is the best weapon against a bad reputation.
"We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for bees," Fischer says repeatedly, pointing out that 30 percent of the world's food must be pollinated by bees in order to grow.
Usually wearing just a T-shirt and shorts, Fischer stands amid the 45,000 bees in the screened room for 25 to 30 minutes at a time, on multiple occasions each day. When he and his legion of volunteers aren't busy tending the bees, they're handing out honey and selling beeswax candles.
Fischer says most days, he doesn't leave the building at all. And that's fine with him. "I like to see the expression on people's faces when they see something they thought was dangerous and [realize] it isn't," he says.
The home-arts competitor
It was her rug-hooking teacher who talked Barbara Ditto into entering an item at the State Fair for the first time.
"I was very flattered," recalls Ditto, an Ellicott City resident. The year was 1974, and the bell pull with the fruit motif was the first rug-hooking project Ditto had completed. She can't remember how the project fared. But it must have done fairly well, because it's part of a rug display at historic Montpelier Mansion in Laurel.
Over the past 28 years, Ditto, 71, entered other items in the fair's rug-hooking and knitting competitions. This year she entered a pillow with a crewel design. Ditto's main criteria? "That the project be finished," she says with a laugh.
A few years back, a Fair Isle sweater with a many-colored, intricately knit collar garnered Ditto the Hellen Burns Smyth Award.
Smyth, the granddaughter of a former fair president and a longtime entrant in home-arts events at the fair, died in 1997.
The award in her memory is given in a number of different categories to recognize the best item in each.
Ditto was pleased by the recognition but says her interest in the fair goes beyond the awards she can win.
"I love going to the fair to see what other people have done," she says. "The smocking and embroidery work, the quilting and even the canned goods - I just love the fair."
The final-year 4-H'er
Eight years ago, Jack Troyer spent the night in the Cow Palace for the very first time.
What a thrill it was for the 10-year-old 4-H'er to sleep on a cot just a few feet from his Hereford heifer. Even now, he can hear the cattle lowing as they settled in for the night, and the strange silence that hung over the fairgrounds in the wee hours of the morning.
Jack, 18, isn't given much to nostalgia. That's left to his mom. She's the one who proudly puts the trophies and ribbons Jack and his siblings have won in the display case in the family's Pylesville home.
But as the lanky young farmhand begins his last fair showing beef cattle in 4-H, he admits he's sort of sorry to see this phase of his life end.
Even when he was old enough to venture out of the Cow Palace without a parent chaperone, Jack never spent much time anywhere but the livestock barns.
"I like showing. I like fooling with cattle. And I like being around my friends at the fair," he says.
The fair manager
It began as a summer job in 1963 that turned into a permanent position, but for years Max Mosner wasn't sure he was going to last through the winters.
Mosner was hired as the assistant to fair general manager John Heil in 1965. It was a year-round job, but back then, when the fair ended early each September, there wasn't much to do until the following spring. Mosner says trying to keep busy for weeks on end proved difficult.
Fortunately, by the time Mosner became the fair's vice president and general manager in 1972, filling his days at the office was no longer a problem.
Now 62, the Baltimore County native begins his 40th year with the State Fair tomorrow. And after all these years, he still loves every minute of it - from old standbys such as the livestock shows, horse racing and carnival midway to recent attractions such as the popular livestock birthing center and the guided barn tours.
Mosner is especially proud of the fair's college scholarship program; the Junior Fair Board, which was started to make sure the fair stayed in touch with youth; and the outreach program that brings children from Baltimore City neighborhoods to the fair.
As the fair's general manager, Mosner oversees a campus of buildings that are in use year-round. And during the fair, he supervises nearly 500 employees.
Nothing, however, keeps him from his favorite task: walking the fairgrounds several times each day.
After all these years, "It's just neat to see people come out here and have a good time," he says.
Musical head liners
Steve Holy, country music, 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, Grandstand
Avalon, Christian contemporary music, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Grandstand
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, hard rock, 8 p.m. Aug. 30, Grandstand
All concerts are free with fair admission. Limited seating available on a first-come, first-served basis. Grandstand opens one hour before the show.
Fair facts
What: The 121st Maryland State Fair
When: Tomorrow through Sept. 2
Where: Maryland State Fairgrounds, York and Timonium roads, Timonium
Hours: 10 a.m.-10 p.m. (Some activities begin earlier.), Admission: $5; children under 12 free. Midway rides are extra.
Parking: $2 at fairgrounds, free at Deereco park and ride
Light rail: Stops at Cow Palace gate
Call: 410-252-0200, Ext. 227
Web site: www. marylandstatefair.com