00:00                                         Hello, this is Melissa, Hale-Spencer, the editor of the Altamont Enterprise and today we are discussing the other oldest institution in Altamont, the Altamont Fair, and we are so excited to have with us two people who are just devoted to the fair. We have Pat Canaday who is dressed like a modern woman and her jeans and her spangled top and we have Bev Filkins who looks like someone who might have gone to the fair when it was founded 125 years ago. She has a beautiful, what do you call that? Brimmed picture hat and a long skirt and a high collared  blouse with ruffles at the neck. So welcome women. I'm so excited to have you here. And the reason for the news of this podcast is the fair has been awarded a $3,500 grant by the county to help preserve its history and bev is at the forefront of that. So just tell us a little about what your committee is Bev and what you're doing to preserve fair history.

01:19                                         Well, we started two years ago with 125th anniversary committee. Uh, so we're working to celebrate for two years plus we want to restore and uh, make sure we preserve all of our information that we have on the fairgrounds. Um, but we are starting that even more so in the fall when we get done with 125th, we have to order some, um, some cases and some, um, our cable, uh, files, things like that, uh, to store things and make sure that the people that are coming along in 25 years, we'll be able to have access to the things that we are going to get ready for them.

02:09                                         Wonderful. So who is it that is working on this project?

02:14                                         Well, we have a committee of about 10 people. A, they're just volunteers from the town. Um, some people are a associate members are members of the fair, a very interested in history. We've gone to many workshops and seminars and we've gone to visit different museums so that we can learn more about what we want to do.

02:40                                         And one of the things that's always impressed me about the fair is the volunteer effort. It just astounds me that so many people, so many diverse people give their time and talents to the fair. And tell us a little about the museums the fair, which I know are run entirely by volunteers,

03:03                                         correct? Uh, yeah, we have seven museums now because we just started one last year, which is our fair history museum. Uh, and uh, we have, um, the other six and this year we decided that we would like to have people be able to enjoy the history of the fair by doing walking tours. Um, we're going to be handing out a fans and things to the ladies and we're going to address in the appropriate, uh, costumes for 18, 90, 92 93. And we'd like the public to come and do the same. It's a Ken. Um, so we've been working on that. We have, besides the fair history museum, we have the circus museum, we have the farm house museum. Uh, we have the Antique Farm Machinery Museum.

03:56                                         I love this list, but I'm going to slow you down a little so we can hear a tiny bit about what is in each of these museums. Okay. So you mentioned your own new museum and tell us about what's going to be in there. Okay. Uh, we started last year

04:14                                         here, as I say, and we did have a, a professional, a sign made up, a very large and it gave a timeline of the fair. Uh, we also have, um, a hundred year, um, for the hundredth anniversary. Someone made a mosaic. We have that up and we have the list of presidents from the start to the present. Uh, this year we're going to add a little more, uh, we're going to have the timeline for when Schenectady County in 1922 and a Green County and came to join us to make us a tri county fair. That was in 1945. So we're working on a poster for that. We have trains in the, um, fair history museum, which we're restoring right now, like model trains, model trains. Okay. Uh, so we're working,

05:20                                         I can imagine a whole crew of young boys track without being too big boys too, and we have

05:30                                         our cases filled with many of the old stock certificates. We have antique looking fans that the women had back then.

05:42                                         Oh, you had mentioned very oriented hand fans and I think you mentioned too, you're going to be handing out modern, modern fast as well. That will have

05:52                                         anniversary on it. The 125th anniversary and our new that we've set

05:58                                         up for last year. Nice. Now you mentioned that this museum is in the back of the circus museum. So could you tell us a little about the circus museum too? Okay.

06:08                                         Okay. Um, the circus museum, um, was originally in a different location. It might've been more than one location, but they did move it a few years ago, uh, to the area right next to the administration where the circus museum.

06:26                                         Um, and

06:28                                         who into it, your imagination just takes flight because it's a miniature fantasy of the circus. Uh, we have all kinds of posters in there. Um, there's a train again in there. Uh, there's all kinds of wagons, circus wagons and animals and uh, a lot of it was taken from Danbury, Connecticut when they closed their fare there and we were able to acquire that and uh, it's um, it's, it's very, very interesting. Um, there's a supervisor is chuck read him and his family made a beautiful, um, ferris wheel that we have on display there and um,

07:21                                         fred hillenbrand who used to be our

07:24                                         treasurer was a major force in maintaining and advocating for the circus museum, but we would like everyone to come in and get a history lesson.

07:35                                         Yeah, there are little miniature display. Yes. We have many. Fascinating. And you mentioned that some of them came from the fair that had closed and Dan Barry and they're just so many fairs that with long, long histories that are closing and it's so nice to have one that seems robust. What, what do you attribute that to? Um, the altima unfair just seems to have enough supply. I think it's the volume

08:05                                         tears and the whole hard day work. Uh, we even have things in there from barnum and Bailey, which you know, is out of business now. Also, we have many posters and things like that, but um,

08:17                                         just the landscape of entertainment is changed. So markedly circuses are no longer the draw that they were, most of them are closed and fairs to. But yet this one seems to find enough modern and old to, to kiss vital. Yeah. Well, different kinds of people would like to

08:33                                         good, you know, there's history people and there's a, you know, younger people that a and an a circus is really. I mean we have men that are just adorable

08:43                                         and they just, you know, it's something they've always wanted to do themselves. So if you come in, you can see, you can run away and join the circus for an afternoon. That's right. So let's keep going down the list of museums, the circus. You mentioned the Farm House Farm House Museum. And tell us about that. It's sort of set up like an old farm house.

09:03                                         Yes it is. And it's been staffed and they've been wearing costumes right along, uh, for the, uh, the farm women that, you know, did things back in those days, um, and it shows the aspects of day to day life, uh, along with the humanity of life with a, from approximately 18, 90 to 1930. So they have, um, two parts of their display. Uh, several are changeable. Um, they seemed exhibit spaces and I'm the seam at the farm house museum in this year, which is 2018, we'll will honor the 125th anniversary of the Ana ultimate fair and the focus on life in the 18 nineties. So each of our museums will be doing that

09:59                                         and that's a good time period, not just because the fair was founded then, but you could almost through your family history, I imagined back that far, you know, you can, like, I can get to my grandmother and think of how she lived so it's just out of reach, but almost in our mindset to bring it front and forward is a neat idea. Yeah. They have many

10:21                                         collections there and artifacts from that time period that, uh, you know, people can enjoy and I'm old stoves and things like that. Um, they uh, have some chipped and cracked China, but that's how they like to display it. They want you to see, you know, how I guess difficult it was for the women back then to maintain things. And

10:48                                         so chip China or broken China was repaired then because it was so valuable these days of a plate breaks, we throw it out and get a new one. But I mean I've looked at old plates with just remarkable repairs or pots with remarkable repairs because they were so valuable. It's a neat kind of metaphor for making do in life. So what's our next museum?

11:10                                         Our next museum is the Antique Farm Machinery Museum. And when you visit it, um, there's several things that happen. You meet, um, you listened to and you can get answers to questions about a antique farm machinery. Um, most of the men love to go into this museum building. Denato and M is doing a wonderful job this year. He's been on our committee all year for the last two years. Uh, you get the experience of the oldest museum at the fair, uh, you really, it's an education to go in there because know so much

11:54                                         about their items that they can explain everything to you and do remarkable things that you wouldn't even think of having to be done. Like they have a corn husker, they have these things that just amaze you to look at it.

12:10                                         So you wouldn't normally look at their, they have a bone crusher because they would crush the bones of any, the, you know, the animals and stuff that they've eaten. So to add as an additive for the garden and so on, for the counseling, her bone meal. Yeah. So that not only is the corn cornhusker or you know, the, the mortar and pestle to do the grinding up, but it just some amazing machines

12:31                                         being machines too. I remember every cow, the late at brow, I'm harvesting with some of the machines that were there and just showing people how they weren't. Well, the dates there from some of those machines are from 1850 to 1940, so a century worth of machinery.

12:53                                         Those were the early gas days too. So they, they're. The puppets were that you could hear the hit and miss engines. So that was the early stages.

13:00                                         It isn't very noisy, noisy. The little kids just flocking to it. It's next to the midway there. And when they get tired of the rides, that noise I think just that you'd like to keep a lot of their machinery running when they can see what strikes me about the fair. I'm 65 and half the age of the fair, but you know, it was a little kid. I was just thrilled. We get free tickets at school, you know, and there was always the bike drawing and then as a teenager I had a date and you know, Earl, the Pearl is my mother called him shot and one of those booths and got me a horse. And then as a young mother, you know, I took my kids and watch their excitement and now is all lady. I gravitate towards the, you know, the knitting and the, um, the homemaking kinds of things. It's just, it's like this whole spectrum of a variety of things for different ages and interests.

14:06                                         You asked earlier what is the draw of the fair, and I think you just described it, that no matter what stage of life you're in the fair offer, something to you on a personal level, whether it be the games and the rides as a younger person perhaps you know, a carousel ride, you know, on the merry go round with a loved one or enjoying the arts and crafts and the and the grange hall and the and the Animal. A livestock

14:29                                         and livestock city kids there every year that are just amazed to see in person, sheep or cow,

14:39                                         whatever you think. That's the strength to have all of our volunteers and the diverse group that we not only talk about the history of our community and how we fit in in Albany County in New York state, but how agriculture is played such

14:52                                         a large role in all of our lives and how we have developed from those early rural routes. And certainly now are far more suburban than we might've been even 20 years ago, but that, that education level that we want to share with the kids in Albany and the kids and Schenectady who may not be able to, you know, they're not seeing chickens in their backyards like we might have 20 years ago. It's a draw. It's, it's something we want to continue to share. And I think that's part of the value of what we offer. Excellent. We will want to hear about the rest of the museums. I got you off your list. Sorry. That's okay. And um, you really don't want to miss the 18 nineties building because they are so diverse. They have so many different displays down there of um, old carriages, things like that.

15:39                                         Joe Merley was instrumental in creating the 18 nineties village they had there. He created with him is because of the Ultima and enterprise, the hotel Altima and a 10 and hardware shop, a cobbler shop, a post office. I was alone a saddle and harness shop, a Western Union, a jail, a barber shop. So I mean, it's such a variety. It's like a little village and Sean had talked to Amy Anderson who said that this year the post office is going to go live. You can actually post the post office. That's really excited about that. Yeah. Plus in the bar for the last two years or so, they have served a root beer floats so uncertain in the building on Saturday. Great. The jail was an actual cell, uh, that was previously used. Um, the western union office was actual vintage equipment and the Ultima and enterprise was, that's the original equipment on display and I think Jim Gardner and his son Jimmy are actually firing that up and to get that ready this year, that's going to be fun.

17:01                                         Looking forward to that. It has a large number of carriages and uh, yeah, they have a original water wagon that holds water, uh, now amish buggy. I'm a luggage wagon and ultimate taxi wagon, so all kinds of wagons and antique stores and in, in, you know, the New York State Museum probably. So it really, um, it really is a. We also have a lumberjack show there. Oh, that's fun. The Sherman throw accident. They really do. Yeah, so that. That's very interesting. We actually have two on Saturday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The northeast woodworkers association will be in that building, doing their woodturning and scroll saw making free

17:50                                         gifts for the kids to pick up on their way out of the one year they made Harry Potter ones for the kids are little animal that's offering. Oh, isn't that nice? All free with they. They're so talented and they enjoy working with the public and it's just so much fun seeing the kids' faces when they say which animal would you like? As I mentioned, once you pay your admission to the fair, everything in there, pretty much everything is free. Either a, if you want your games and food. Of course there are some. There are several attractions for extra, like the bounce houses as a little extra. That's a different one, but all the rides are unlimited. Rides are included. All the shows, the live music, we have lots and lots of kids activities so that they can go from building to building and do a variety of things and in each of the buildings.

18:38                                         So it is a. it's a full and all these museums and all the museums are free and the animals are free. So the next one on the list would be the auto museum, uh, and the men have been there, uh, they like to care for the cars a past, present, and future, um, to collection includes a, um, 19, 19 them and there's all three. I don't know what it mean. It's a truck. It's a truck where they kind of a delivery truck and I think it's the one of three right in the country are still running. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Pretty happy with that. They've, they take very good care of that, but it's fun that it's running, which is even more fun. They have a 19, 27 Buick Limo, a 1928 Pontiac, a 1940 pontiac and in 1949 oldsmobile, um, they have other vehicles that are not currently running but, uh, are very interesting.

19:40                                         And they have some newer ones that I've seen there that are really beautiful. They really take care of their automobiles and uh, they've been doing it mostly, uh, you know, the same people for quite a few years. John van warmer is the superintendent of that building, Rick Miller, his assistant that they worked very diligently to try to pick one vehicle and get it running over the winter as a winter project. Everyone can, can't wait to see what it is, their issue. We know what it is this year. I don't know. I should be an exhibit. They've got their auto friends are bringing low riders, the kind of that lift to go up over been some bumps, but then when they drive they're very low to the ground. Just six and I mean very, very low to the ground. So I have some photographs but it'll be really fun to see that live and see them rise up to. So you can. Yes. I don't know how we all wanted to know how do they go over speed bumps. It's like there's no way. I mean you've got them right out, but it's, that's. I have not seen that at the fair. So that's going to be a great exhibit. Oh yeah. Very happy. But then they change them every year, which is nice. They have

20:48                                         some amazing, amazing exhibits of motorcycles. Snowmobiles, a mustangs. Right. So they, they bring something new to the very rear and a few years ago the members built a motorcycle during the fair week that both adults and kids enjoyed viewing, uh, that, I think we had a picture on it. Yeah, I know you did it. It was fun. It was a great week project. Uh, the back of the, um, auto museum was originally a firehouse museum. Some of the artifacts were sold and some still remain a, we have a fire board in there from Schenectady that was located on Erie Street. What is a fire board? Well, it's a, uh, it was in a main fire house that Kohl's could all go in to see a huge big board. It's made of marble. It's beautiful. A New York state came the museum and we wanted it and uh, we took pictures of it.

21:52                                         We basically make arrangements to share that, to share that so that people can see it because parts of it still work. I, you know, all the years I've been to the fair, I never knew that was there because they have to go luck know. So that's the museum. That's where we are. I feel like we had the tour. We have one more.

22:11                                         We have the schoolhouse. Oh yes. Tell us about class. So everybody loves the school and the bows and killed, right? Uh, yeah. It was built in 18. 50 was originally located in the town of Nox. Uh, it was donated by the, uh, Van ben Scotton hot and family. And our CD brothers moved in to the fair grounds in 1966.

22:36                                         I remember one year, the Pulliam family, they're all the children had gone to school there and they had a family reunion at the fair and they took a picture of all of them in front of their old school was really fun. That was really bad for Han does a wonderful job. They, again, for free for the children they give. They collect books all year long and give out a free book to the children as they come through and they just didn't have the kids sit in the students seats and look at the job. It really feels like you're going back in time when you step in there because very set up and, and Fran usually has a coloring contest. She come to them on the wall and uh, yeah, the kids just love it and it's not a the museum, but you also have a chapel there.

23:21                                         Rice. We do. Tell us a little about that. The Chapel, we actually have a pastors come in in the evening, usually in the evening, five, 5:30 to offer a prayer and discussion, but they have gospel music throughout the week. Again, just to kind of a quiet place to sit and reflect. Um, it was originally created to serve the carnival workers who came in and didn't always have an opportunity to visit in the community that they're in, but they saw fit to have that there so that people could stop in and get a moment's breck break. Now I know that told me she's been volunteering at the fair since 1990. How long have you. I always think of you as synonymous with. How long have you been at this? Actually, I thought you were longer than I was like, are you sure? It was 19. 90 [inaudible] I've been there since 1983.

24:14                                         Eighty two. I was. I started out as a sheep barn. Superintendent will tell us a little about the sheep. Well, the animal, the animals are so much fun. Again. Uh, my, my bias is towards the sheep because that's what we raised at home. You do what kind of sheet? Oh, I have a dorset crosses the commercial breed for meat and wool. Um, my son had, we had pure bred at the time, but I've moved now into more commercial with the board of colleagues and so on. So we do. But the, um, I'm sorry, this is way off the track. I didn't even know that about you. Where's your father? Guilderland center and off Meadowdale road. And how many acres do you have? They're 13. And how many sheep does that support? 50. Oh my gosh. Amazing, I just never take that offline. So tell us about at the sheep at the fair there.

25:05                                         I know we've covered the four eight shows, but they are all kinds of things that are happening. Absolutely. Tell us a little bit of each of the bars we have, what an ag tech, what we're naming the AG tenant that'll be located right outside the poultry building where each of these species will come and do demonstrations. So for sheep, um, I scheduled a sheep sharing I think for one day he'll, he'll share a few sheep. The kids will practice their fitting and show a fitting of the sheet to show people how they get ready for a show. Um, there'll be milking goats so people will have an opportunity to see how that's done. There'll be walking their calves back and forth. Um, we've got a, I think Tom del Rocco and Mr Nora are going to talk about bees and beekeeping. So this ag tent kind of encompasses all the folks.

25:50                                         The chickens will talk, there'll be a rooster crowing contest that will be some funds. And how do you do that? You can't get a rooster, right? I should be asking that person, but they have to see if they can get the loudest and who's the longest I guess, um, but they've got each of the buildings have some fun things to do, are sheep photo contests and uh, that we have what there's a over the hill contest over the hill, sheep showmanship. So in four H, one of the big competitions for all of the animals is called showmanship so that the child will bring their animal in that they've prepared for show. They've cleaned it and brushed it and loved it and taught it to walk. And so on, a number of years ago, we decided that we should get the adults, adults involved. So we called it over the show and um, that's where the adults bring in, usually their sheep to come in and try to do their best in showing, seeing that there's always these parents who are coaching the kids, let's see how they do it themselves.

26:52                                         So we have the kids judge the adults, which is really fun. Lots and lots of fun. What have to be a good sport for that? Well, I know to you have judging of what you call the wool that comes from the sheep have leases, leases, leases. Then you also have a in a different building. Women who are spinning well and showing their weaving and knitting. Young and telesis a little about. There are demonstrations every day and the sheep and goat barn again, they, they'll do the goat milking for that and they, uh, they've had making soap and so on. And, but the sheep, we have, uh, the in the wool nook, right in the front of the sheep and Goat Barn. People are always spinning or weaving on small tabletop looms or their felting needle felting to try to show people the diversity of using the fleeces and what other kinds of things it can make people or knitting or crocheting.

27:46                                         And again, we get to capture a lot of interest when people recognize the, the raw fleece will be spun into an actual yarn that can then be used to create clothing and create fabric. And those women are always so nice when you interrupt their work to ask a question, they want nothing more for you to interrupt them and ask a question. They just relish it and they're so gracious. You're right. I have an hour has gone so fast. Are there any parting thoughts maybe who should come to the fair? Any. Just any things you want to share about your work or the fair itself? Just to close out our, our time here with some parting words. I think one of the things, again, just to share that I'm the fair is for everybody. It's for everybody. Everybody can enjoy parts of it. We are pretty weather resistant.

28:36                                         We have spent a lot of time and effort to make sure we have plenty of indoor activities. So even if it's, it looks like rain come anyway. Um, because we've got plenty of paved areas for strollers and wheelchairs. We have an amazing senior day on Wednesday where seniors 65 and over, um, and any active or retired military are free, including rides until 6:00 PM. And that's on Wednesday. And Grange members come in on free that day too. Until six, so that, um, we have lots of opportunities for people to enjoy whatever passion they have and to explore new opportunities. Nice and bad. You have any closing thoughts? Well, I just would like to see many, many people this year at our museums because they really don't know what they're missing. Um, you know, they'd been there a long time and uh, that's why we're trying to do the booklets and the walking tour and just to bring everybody around and show them what we have. Well, thank you both for all you do to keep such a wonderful institution alive and vital. Thank you so much.