All's fair in love and war, but what about the county fair?

Ah Fair Season, to most people on the planet I suppose that really doesn't mean much, but here in the literal middle of nowhere, it is a very exciting and busy time...at least it used to be.  I've been taking stuff to the fair for as long as I can remember, first open class baking with my grandmother then a hundred different 4-H projects and later open class photography.  Now I'm taking a little of this and a little of that and getting my son involved too (his second year as Grand Champion in the youth Foods division).  This year was also my first year actually judging anything.  I've never judged radishes before, but I was in charge of the entire 4-H gardening division (consisting entirely of the aforementioned radishes and a clump of rhubarb).  Our fair is really, really small (I used to exhibit at the biggest county fair in the entire state, which was bigger than my current state's State Fair).   don't know how long it can go on or survive, perhaps it is just that our tiny community doesn't have the population to support a county fair or perhaps it is that it is a dying tradition, like so much else in this anti-social, technical, and politically correct age.

Small as it is, I have been satisfied with the judging at our little fair, at least until this year.  I entered a fair once where it was very obvious that the awards were based on the name rather than the exhibit and I never entered anything there again.  It takes time, money, and thought to get something together and what's the point if you are doomed to lose because you don't have the right last name?  The photography exhibit this year was a little like that (everything else was fine).  One person had about 29 pictures (they have every right to enter as many or few as they choose) and every one did great while the rest of the entries really didn't amount to much though several of the pictures were far superior to those of the person in question.  I would love nothing more than a healthy selection of excellent photos, but when a person with a display of mediocre pictures steals the show, it is rather discouraging.  Perhaps the judge just had different taste or a less scrupulous eye, but the pictures selected as 'excellent' were far from it, they weren't bad but they sure weren't great.  Perhaps that is why the county fair is languishing, when the judging becomes partisan, no one wants to take the time or bother to enter anything.  Which is a pity, for we need art and beauty and crafts and flowers and good food and creativity in this technical age of isolation and languishing community.  Perhaps it was a fluke, and we'll give it another try, somebody has to carry on the tradition if it is to remain one!