ALTAMONT — The fair was bustling on opening day Tuesday with grandparents and their grandchildren. Another frequent sight was mothers accompanied by their toddlers.

One such tot, Nicholas Ashley, ran around in circle in the Agriculture Building until a fuzz ball of a chick caught his eye. He peered into the metal cage on tiptoes as he tried to reach out and touch the yellow newborn.

At the same time, a brother and sister team wandered through the one-foot-high maze that starts in the building and moves out into the corridor between museums.

Later, a talkative four-year-old blonde headed girl in pigtails strolled into the Circus Museum with a skip in her step. A gray-haired grandfather tagged along. The entrance to the museum has a statue of a male lion growling.
"You can pet it; he won’t bite," the girl said, giving permission to her elder as she reached out stoke the mane.
"You sure he won’t"" the relative said, playing along. The girl nodded definitively with all seriousness and her pigtail bobbed.

The fair, is an attraction for young children and the young at heart.

If fair visitors are up for watching daring stunts rather than pretend, The Star Family Circus is thier venue. The crowed cheered during the 2 p.m. show as José rode a motorcycle circling upside-down in a metal globe of a cage.

Treats for all

Ten-year-old Taylor Provost, was at the fair with her pony Golden Treasure. She calls him "Dunc," short for the nickname Duncan. They won a trophy on Tuesday for the walk, jog, and pleasure championship in the pony ring.

Provost said that being in shows is a lot of fun.

Taylor’s horse stays at her Aunt’s house, but she visits the pony regularly to feed him, replace fresh shavings, and water and brush his coat, she said. Also, she takes lessons, where she has learned how to direct a horse, how to ride properly, and the correct way to talk to a judge.
Provost’s friend, Abby Testo, who was in the same competition, said that, whenever the judge tells your horse to stay, it is up to the rider to keep the horse straight. Rather than allowing the horse to turn or movesideways, the rider must keep her mount in line. "I lost a lot of points because of that," Testo said.

Provost likes Western-style riding, where a contestant loses points if she bounces while riding, she said. She also likes Western because of the costume she gets to wear. She was dressed in black with a leopard-print vest, garnished with a silver oval-shaped cowboy belt buckle.

While Dunc can be bratty at times, Provost said, if she sticks her hand out, he’ll lick her instead of biting. Provost enjoys the bonding they share when she gives Dunc a treat such as carrot or a cookie.

Humans are lured with treats as well. Vendors at the fair sell smoothies, fried dough, lemonade, barbecued meats, hamburgers, taco bowels, and chicken and steak sandwiches.
The Country Store, in back of the Circus Building is filled to the brim with candies. Proprietor John Burk said that the old-fashioned candies are what is moving off the shelf. The most popular purchases on the first day of the fair were vanilla bulls eyes, the circular caramels with a cream center; Mary Janes; fire balls; and the old candy cigarettes renamed and labeled "candy sticks" to be politically correct, Burk said.

Blocks of fudge are stacked in cases with a wide variety of traditional and unusual flavors: maple, chocolate rum nut, butter mint, rocky road, watermelon raisin, pumpkin pie, and black forest, to list a few.

Besides the commercial food for sale, there is also a fair-sponsored Food Building that houses and displays all the wining entries in the baking contest.

The decorated cake sitting under a best-of-fair ribbon was created by Bonnie Draisey and depicts Harry Potter’s Hogwarts campus, with stone castle, a Quidditch field and rings, and Hagrid’s hut house.

Another eye-dazzling cake looked literally like a cooked 25-pound turkey. Decorator Eldeen Gifford craftily created the look of a butter plattered — perfectly browned turkey with the colors of the icing. She created stuffing out of frosting, too, and attached cakes pieces shaped like drums and thighs to the body.

One of the fluffiest, thickest-looking slices of bread on display was baked by Claire Barra. Her carrot banana bread, was put in the running for best in fair.

Nostalgia

One senior citizen couple, Joan and Harry Croote, found shade under the grove of hardwood trees near the performance stage in the late afternoon. They said they come to the fair every year for the farming and the food.
When asked which exhibit they make to sure to hit each year, Harry Croote responded, "The French fry truck," as he munched down on one such salt-sprinkled potato sliver.
Joan Croote said she enjoys walking through the museums, even though they are the same every year. "My grandfather was a great farmer... and Harry worked on a farm in Guilderland for Frank Polak," she said. They enjoy reminiscing as they look at the farming tools, machinery and animals.

The Farmhouse Museum, with a theme of life and living in the 18th and early-19th centuries, has historical artifacts including furniture, dishware and clothing. One new exhibit is from the Foundation of the New York State Nursing Association, with headquarters are on Western Avenue in Guilderland.

The foundation’s mission is to strengthen the nursing professions services and increase public knowledge about nursing. The foundation’s archivist, Rachel Donaldson, has put together a showcase of the nursing profession through America’s history.

Cathrine Welch, a nurse, and the director of the Bellevue Alumnae Center for Nursing History was also on hand.

The Red Cross nursing service was founded in 1909, Donaldson said.

Originally, before nursing grew as a profession, it was performed by religious men, Welch said, and then passed on to nuns. Nursing was first a volunteer effort, she said.

Many people don’t know it, but Walt Whitman was a volunteer nurse during the Civil War, Welch said.

The profession as we know it today in America is modeled after Florence Nightingale’s approach, she said, and Bellevue’s School of Nursing in New York City was the first school in the United States to use Nightingale’s principals, Welch said. The school closed in 1969, but Bellevue Hospital is still running.

Crafters

Besides agriculture, which dominates the fair, pockets of crafters showcase their talents.

Dick Moran and Carl Borst of the Mohawk Valley Wood Carving Association, were whittling away at hand-held ornaments on Tuesday.

Moran said he has been carving for 12 to 13 years. He got into it accidentally, he said. He was going to sign up for a woodworking class and a friend talked him into taking wordcarving instead.
The three-dimensional statues displayed on the table are called "carving in the round," Moran said.
"I had never done anything like this before," he said; being artistic wasn’t part of his younger life. Because he is more interested in working with wood than the art aspect, Moran said, he often uses a pattern to start his work. He enjoys making religious carvings and statues of Santa Claus, he said.

Borst does a variety of projects including charicatures. He had one of President George Bush sitting out.
"It incorporates comedy into your work by making outstanding features," he said.

Borst said that he changes his interest and type of carving project every couple of years.

He also just completed a commissioned project, carving an Uncle Sam for the city of Troy, which was one-and-a-half times the size of a person.