Wednesday, (November 24, 2010
My Hometown
in
By ELIZABETH STEWART
There’s something about a Fair
that brings out the child in us.
For Kings Mountain area peo-
ple, the Bethware Community Fair
and the Cleveland County Fair are
favorite haunts during Fair Season.
Bethware Progressive Club or-
ganized the Bethware Fair in 1948.
A handful of men got together in
1947 and decided to help out the
football team by throwing an agri-
cultural fair that has become a tra-
dition now for 63 years.
Handwritten notes from the or-
ganizational meeting May 19, 1947
reported that “directors of the Pro-
gressive Club met in the High
School building. J.B. Brown made
the motion that the club sponsor a
carnival fair.” (At the time Beth-
ware School housed grades 1-12.)
The club talked about sponsor-
ing a beauty contest, an ugly man
contest, and cake walk. Admission
was 10 cents for women and chil-
dren. Men paid by their waist
measurement.
“Kids couldn’t keep their eyes
off the school ground when the Fair
rolled in at Bethware,” said long-
time and now retired Bethware
Progressive Club member/officer
Fred Tate.
“You know we used to set up
during school hours because the
Fair was held for a number of years
in August and school was in ses-
sion.”
In the beginning, Bethware Fair
was mostly agriculture. Exhibits
Home really
is where the
heart is!
Retired principal Alfred Best has made Summit Place
his home for the last nine years.
SUMMIT PLACE
OF KINGS MOUNTAIN
Assisted Living & Memory Care
1001 Phifer Road, Kings Mountain
704.739.6772
wwwsummitPlaceOfKingsMountain.com
2
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There's something about a fair that draws us there
every year feature some of the
good, home-grown products from
gardens and farms in the commu-
nity.
The sponsoring club always
gives the proceeds from the Fair to
the schools, setting up a scholar-
ship and naming a Fair Queen. This
year over $2,000 was awarded in
prizes and there were many blue
(first place) ribbons among the en-
tries.
A petting zoo, live entertain-
ment, midway rides and the tradi-
th i
tional cotton candy, roasted corn,
hot dogs and hamburgers and all
the fixings are among the sights
and sounds of the event that people
love and remember.
“Who can forget the many con-
tributions that men and women of
the Greater Bethware community
and our fair-goers and advertisers
in our premium book make to the
fair’s success, says current Pro-
gressive Club president Mitch
McKinney. The list is long.
See FAIR on Page 5A
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