Photo by Michael Kelly Barlow Fair Queen Leeann Triplett checks on Jesse, the horse she’ll be showing during the Barlow Fair. Triplett, 17 and a Waterford High School senior, said Thursday she’s been riding horses since she was 3 years old.

BARLOW — Steady rain and mud around the barns and pathways might have discouraged some, but not the McCarthy family.

The group of two adults and four children strolled past vendor stalls at the top of the hill on the Barlow fairgrounds toward the carnival rides Thursday afternoon, an hour after the gates opened at the fair, the longest continuously running community fair in Ohio.

“It’s a family tradition,” Gordon McCarthy said.

“We come here every year, all four days,” his wife, Wendy McCarthy, said.

Lifelong residents, except for their college years, the couple brought along their two daughters, Cassidy and Kelsey, along with their friends, Connor and Cooper Pugh.

Photo by Michael Kelly Fairgoers trudge up the damp hill to the vendor and carnival area of the Barlow Fair on Thursday afternoon.

When asked about their favorite fair activity, all four answered, one after the other, “The rides.”

Down the hill at the livestock barns, gumbooted exhibitors zipped around the complex in four-wheel ATVs, stood talking in groups under the shelter of porches or inside the barns, and tended to their animals.

Tricia Becker hosed down her daughter’s heifer, Daisy, in an outdoor pen after washing the animal.

Her daughter, 15-year-old Megan, had already put on her dress clothes for showing and the heifer needed a clean-up, Becker explained.

“It’s our first year at Barlow, even though we live here,” Becker said. “We’ve shown market steers for seven years at the Washington County Fair, and we wanted to support our local fair.”

Photo by Michael Kelly Tricia Becker bathes Daisy, a heifer being raised by her daughter, Megan, during the opening afternoon of the Barlow Fair on Thursday.

Inside the cattle barn, Jerry Mitchem stopped for a moment while guiding a wheelbarrow out the door. The Mitchem Limousin Farm, on Blue Knob Road, is his family’s operation and he said he’s watched his grandchildren grow up on the farm and help raise the big cattle, then go on to other careers.

Showing cattle keeps the family busy.

“We’ve been all over this summer, the state fair, Marietta, we’ll be going to Coshocton and Tyler County after this,” he said. “We might go to the Keystone in Pennsylvania.”

Mitchem, who said he’s retired from working at the DuPont plant, has being doing cattle raising and showing for 30 years, with his farm at about 15 head now.

“We like to come out and support this fair. It’s a fun time to meet and talk,” he said. “Too bad it’s wet. It doesn’t look good for the tractor pull tonight.”

Photo by Michael Kelly Jerry Mitchem stops to talk with friends as he helps out with the family’s Simmental and Limousin cattle at the Barlow Fair on Thursday afternoon.

The farm has been in the family since the 1930s, he said. “I’m retired now. I work for the grandkids, they tell me what to do,” he said with a smile.

In the horse barn, Barlow Fair Queen Leeann Triplett tended to Jesse, a 21-year-old paint horse she’s been riding for four years, getting ready for the evening’s show. Jesse, she said, is a versatile horse that loves attention and likes to be rewarded with Skittles.

Triplett, 17 and a senior at Waterford High School, said she first sat a horse when she was 3 years old. “Babe, she was the best horse ever, she was my babysitter, I could always trust her,” she said.

Becoming fair queen involved an application, several essays and an interview with a committee of fair judges. Being the queen, she said, involves representing the fair well.

“It’s a lot of talking, and I’m good at that if it’s something I’m passionate about. The hardest part is to stop talking,” she said. Interacting with all the animals is something she enjoys, and she said as fair queen she’d like to create a better bridge of communication between the young exhibitors and the senior fair officials. Her career ambition is to become an agriculture teacher.

Barlow Fair Junior Princess Josie Burke, 13 and a seventh-grader at Waterford Elementary School, said she sees her role as a model of achievement.

“I really wanted to show kids that they can try anything and succeed,” she said.

Burke, who grew up on a farm and now shows goats, said her ambition is to become a surgeon.

“I want to be able to help people go further in life, and to help them live longer,” she said.

The Barlow Fair continues today, Saturday and Sunday. Its trademark parade goes from Vincent to the fairgrounds starting at 6 p.m. today.

This year’s parade grand marshal is Ronald Ollom, 77 and a lifelong Washington County resident. Ollom was raised on a farm near Fleming and graduated from Vincent High School in 1959. He married Carolyn Rhodes in 1963 and now lives in Vincent.

Retired after 35 years with DuPont, Ollom is active in the community as a member of the volunteer fire department and the Marietta Civitan Club. He helped set up election equipment for many years for the Washington County Board of Elections. He can often be seen helping clean up the public areas of the community, and is known for helping residents in need of handyman work.

***

Today’s Fair Schedule

* 8 a.m.: Gates open

* 6 p.m.: Parade, tractor pull, midway rides open

* 8 p.m.: Music by Appalachian Drift

* 8 p.m.: Karaoke

* 8:30 p.m.: Professor Bubblemaker

* 11 p.m.: Midway rides close

Saturday

* 8 a.m.: Gates open

* 9:30 a.m.: Garden tractor pull

* 10 a.m.: OHSR rodeo

* 11 a.m.; Food eating contest

* Noon: Little Miss and Mister Barlow, midway rides open

* 1 p.m.: Draft pony pull, pie and cake judging

* 5-6 p.m.: Midway rides closed for an hour

* 5:30 p.m.: Pie and cake auction

* 6 p.m.: OHSR rodeo

* 8 p.m.: Music by Shelby County Line

* 11 p.m.: Midway rides close

Sunday

* 8 a.m.: Gates open

* 9:30 a.m.: Church with Dr. Lloyd Dennis

* 10 a.m.: Horse show

* 10 a.m.: Speed pull

* 11 a.m.: Food eating contest

* Noon: Scott Kapple, midway rides open

* 1 p.m.: Pedal pull

* 1:30 p.m.: Farm animal beauty pageant

* 4 p.m.: Midway rides close