Celebrating 75 Years Of The Highland County Fair With Fred Frye
This is Aspen Lupo with the Highland Mid-Kids Radio Club. To celebrate the Highland County Fair’s 75th Anniversary, we are speaking with people who have been involved with the fair for many years. Today, we are speaking with Fred Frye.
Mr. Frye, thank you for joining us. Could you tell us about how your involvement with the fair came about?
“I got involved with the Fair probably in February of 1967 when I – I came to Monterey in August of 1966 and then joined the Lions Club in 1967, and I’ve been with the Fair ever since. And I have held all the offices – I was president for about 12 years, years ago, that was in the ‘70s and ‘80s, possibly, and then I have been secretary, I have been treasurer, and now I’ve been vice president for probably about five to six years anyway. I enjoy working with the Fair, and I enjoy being part of the community.”
Could you talk about the Fair Board and their role in preparing for and holding the fair each year?
“The Fair Board is made up of a Board of Directors, which is the officers, and then we have two members from each of the Ruritan Clubs, the Lions Club and the Chamber (of Commerce) make up the Board also.”
“During the Fair, we all do whatever is needed to be done, we’re always on call to answer questions, to do things. We are in and out of the office all the time during the Fair.”
“And leading up to the Fair, it’s a full time, it’s a yearly job. You do everything that you need to do to get the Fair going, and then also you do everything at the end of the Fair to put everything away. Everything has got a place to go, and we put it all back, and it’s ready for next year. This year, we are doing a lot of work for the 75th Fair. We’re trying to get everything painted up and looking good, and hopefully it’ll be a big success.”
Are there any memorable moments that stand out to you over your yearslong involvement with the fair?
“Some of the memorable moments – I was counting money one night and made a night deposit, probably about midnight, and went into the bank the next day, and it was when we first started putting in the night deposit. Usually, you used to have to keep it somewhere else during the night, but that time I went in the next morning to get my receipt, and Mary Belle Hammer was working at that time, and she said, “Freddy, she said, “it’s not in the safe.” I said, “Well, I know it was put in there.”
“So they went and got all the bank executives, and they all got down. I think it was Delbert got down on his hands and knees, and he reached up in the safe, and then brought down the bag, it was hanging up there by the ribbons that was on the bag, So that really left me feeling good, if they found the money that I had lost, and that was one of the experiences that I’ve had during the fair, and I have a lot of them.”
“I had one night I got called about 2 o’clock in the morning that there was a horn going off on the fairground. And it was a man pulled up, this was when we had the tennis courts on the school side, and the man was pulled up in front of the gate, and he was blowing the horn because he wanted someone to open the gates so he could go home.”
“I have a lot of experiences during the Fair, and I thank everyone very much for being part of it here in the county, too.”
Thank you for speaking with us Mr. Frye. This has been Aspen Lupo, with the Highland Mid-Kids Radio Club for Allegheny Mountain Radio.
Story By
