After Wednesday, I’m convinced there’s no better reality check than planting fence posts. A few upward lifts and downward blows of that iron driver will let you know if you’ve been spending too much time on your duff.
Loading and off-loading a few dozen metal gates will do it, too. So will stapling a few hundred drawings on a huge wall (which in and of itself is not bad, it’s the balancing act high above a cement floor on the top rung of a ladder, hoping to avoid a Humpty Dumpty situation, that’s the strenuous part).
In fact, I worked so hard setting up for Chenango County Dairy Day at the fairgrounds I didn’t even have a chance to take notes for this story. I’ll have to recall it from memory.
“Start at the beginning, Mike, and tell me what you remember.”
“I remember panting. With some intermittent fits of high-pitched wheezing. Hot, labored breaths. Then there was burning. Lots of burning. And I remember it was very messy. I started to get light-headed and ...”
“Let me interrupt you there, Mike. This sounds a lot like your repressed Ponderosa Steakhouse memories that we talked about last session. Are you sure this is what happened while you were setting up Dairy Day?”
Oh right, wrong traumatic experience.
Actually, setting up for the biggest celebration of the county’s biggest industry wasn’t traumatic at all. It was a workout. But it was actually fun. I’d forgotten how good some good old-fashioned hard labor felt. And once I blew out the cobwebs and primed the pump, it went pretty smoothly.
It was tough keeping up with Dairy Day organizer Janet Pfromm. She, along with her five-member committee, have been planning this since October. Nearing the end of seven months of work, she was on a mission.
“The hardest part is definitely the planning,” said Pfromm. “Every year you want to keep it fresh with new ideas and new activities. It’s important to have a lot of different activities. Plus I want to keep it educational. I don’t want it to turn into a flea market. That’s a challenge.”
To keep it educational, Dairy Day doesn’t allow vendors to set up at the event. It’s strictly a mix of interactive, historical and nutritional demonstrations and displays aimed at bringing the public closer to the world of dairy – from the farm to the market.
“I can’t believe so much goes into one day,” said Pfromm as we laid down our last gate for the Petting Zoo in the Exhibition Hall.
My shining moment came when I was officially appointed this year’s Dairy Day Art Director. Apparently it was only a ceremonial title, because all it entailed was hanging up the 175-plus submissions for the coloring contest. Which, for all those who participated, were fantastic. (I’m always impressed with kids who can draw because with me, if it’s not drawing outside the lines, then it’s poor color coordination – hence the blue cows and red skies when I tried.)
Dairy Day runs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Chenango County Fairgrounds on East Main Street in Norwich. It kicks off with 5k Milk Run at 9:30 a.m. and a parade down Main Street at 11 a.m. For more information, contact Cornell Cooperative extension at 334-5841.