Mark’s Musings – October 2, 2013

Mark Fortune

This should be one of the easiest columns I have ever written. There is just too much positive news to report. The Browns, Buckeyes, Indians, The Coshocton County Fair and the new Coshocton Elementary School are all good stuff. Who would have thought that the Browns would be tied for first place after their start? The Buckeyes handled the Badgers fairly easily and Braxton Miller returns as if he never missed a game. And the Indians? Wow. When the vast majority of you receive this week’s copy of The Beacon, the one game playoff between Texas and Tampa Bay will be over and the Tribe will be ready to take the field in what could be coined their biggest game of the season – so far. Go Tribe. Let the streak continue.

And what’s this? In good conscious, I cannot write this column without mentioning the season ending sweep of the Reds by that team from the east – the Pirates. Oh yeah, I would be remiss if I did not at least say a little something about that.

Now let’s turn to the fair – the grandest fair of them all! A county fair that indeed does our county proud. Our youth, the volunteers, all of the clubs and organizations and businesses that help make the fair possible. The folks that work the gates, staff the restrooms, are on the fair board – junior and senior – those 4-H advisors, parents and members that take the time to decorate the booths, make the projects, provide guard duty and more are to be thanked. There are literally thousands of hours that go into the fair and the majority of them are all volunteer. Our community is blessed to have people that are willing to go the extra mile to provide a terrific fair for all of us. Thank them when you get a chance.

The opening ceremony was held at the grandstand this year – and the combined Coshocton Choir performed admirably and the Schumaker family was honored with an award for being an Ohio bicentennial farm. You can read more about that in this issue of The Beacon.

The junior fair royal court was announced and as always these young people will do our community proud. Outgoing junior fair Queen Justine Moran gave passionate comments about why the Coshocton County Fair is the best and had a huge smile on her face as she exclaimed, “It’s nice to see other fairs but it’s great to come home to the best fair.” Justine and outgoing 2012 junior fair King Derek Hoffman did our community proud as they attended other fairs throughout the state during the past year.

We wish the best to incoming junior fair King and Queen Kurtis Croft and Emily Hardesty.

The weather and events at this year’s county fair have combined for attendance that is well over last year and let’s hope the weather trend continues.

Final thought – let’s get out and support the junior fair livestock auction on Thursday evening, Oct. 3. The auction starts at 5:30 p.m. in Hunter Arena. You can see the auction order on page 17 of this week’s Beacon.

Category: Mark's Musings