It is the time of fairs.
First, let’s take a good moment for the word “fair.”
It may be one of the loveliest in the English language. And most versatile, too, as it is not only an adjective; it can be an adverb, noun, or verb.
When you are fair, you might be:
1. in accordance with the rules or standards.
2. light in complexion.
3. within the play of field, if you are a fair ball.
4. considerable in size or amount.
5. fine, dry, and clear, if you are the weather.
6. beautiful or attractive, you Queens in the mirror.
7. without cheating or trying to gain an unjust advantage.
Just to name a few of the things fair can mean.
Mostly, I love to meet people who are fair, the ones who give equal measures to everyone involved.
But the one I’m talking about today, of course, is the fair, as in a county fair, or a state fair. Summer brings them out in full force and now is about the time. Some fairs are charming and delightful and capture the “heart” of the country spirit. Others seem a little seedy like they are out to make a buck and not much more.
Yet. One thing you can count on at the county fair is competition. They come in all varieties at such gatherings.
There are competitions among kids, showing their best animals, like pigs, and chickens, and rabbits. Cows. Goats. And more.
People compete in sewing ventures or painting. Flower growing. Antiques. You might find tractor pulls or horse racing. Oh, there’s a little bit of everything in those aisles of the fairground.
But perhaps the favorites at this time of year are the baking and the cooking competitions. The one I’d like to mention comes to us from the Virginia-Kentucky District Fair. A woman there, named Linda Skeens entered many of the competitions, offering a wide display of her cooking talents. From baked treats to canned goods and more.
A funny thing happened, though. She won. And she won big. The fair posted a list of winners on Facebook, showing that Skeens dominated the recent competition, winning more than 25 of the contest categories. Sure, there are standouts at every competition, but this woman took blue ribbons in nearly all the categories. And that is when things went a little wonky. Everyone wanted to know who Linda Skeens was. Her online fans wanted to find her.
Skeens swept the cake, pie, cookie, bread (both sweet and savory), brownie, and candy categories. In addition to baked goods, Skeens’s corn won best overall canned vegetable, and her peppers prevailed as the overall best non-cucumber pickled item. Skeens won best spaghetti sauce, best applesauce, and best sauerkraut. She won the best jelly with her grape jelly, and her peach-raspberry jam won the best jam, too — among several other undefeated dishes she cooked up for the competition.
Thousands of people responded to the Facebook post, most in awe of Skeens’s culinary skills. But the questions were persistent online: Where is Linda Skeens? And who is she?
Her fame or lack thereof, went viral.
But no one came forward. Linda Skeens would not stand up and be noticed.
Endless jokes rolled in: “Did you hear about the time there was a kitten stuck in a tree? Linda Skeens baked a French Baguette Ladder right there on the spot and rescued it.”
Except they couldn’t find her. Aside from her name, the Virginia-Kentucky District Fair had no information about the woman who seemingly won it all. Into thin air, she went.
Things continued to go crazy online, and her hashtag #LindaSkeens was getting more than 10,000 hits daily. The mystery swelled to national proportions.
In fact, a radio talk show in Texas told the story of Linda Skeens. A woman there, Linda’s granddaughter, realized who they were talking about. Good old Grandma. The entire family was stunned by Linda Skeens’s sudden stardom.
The granddaughter, Franki Skeens, said that her grandmother has participated as a contestant for several decades and has taken home many blue ribbons over the years. But this may have been the biggest.
The real Linda Skeens lives with her husband in Russell County, Va.. She is in her late 60s and has no social media, no email address, and no cell phone.
Mostly, she is a doting mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. And. She cooks.
The bottom line?
She won at the fair, with a slew of fair recipes, winning, fair and square.
This is a good reminder to us. We should always share our good talents with the world. We never know how far they will reach.
And as always, we should always play fair.
==========
“Who says life is fair, where is that written?”
― William Goldman, The Princess Bride
===========
“Everything is evened up in the world. The rich have their ice in the summer but the poor get theirs in the winter.”
― Caroline Fraser, Prairie Fires
===========
“Be fair before being generous, be human before being fair.”
― Fernán Caballero
==========
Is it fair? Of course it is fair.
