Favorite memories of the Lorain County Fair

We asked folks about their favorite memories of the Lorain County Fair. Here's what they said: Rick Ternes "As long as I can remember, I've been over there" at the Lorain County Fair, said Rick Ternes, who now serves as its president. His grandfather, Jack Ternes, served on the fair board for 42 years. Rick remembers helping his grandfather plant and care for flowers at the fairgrounds as a small boy. "I remember as a small child being there with him, and participating in 4-H," he said. "The memories are about family and friends all being together." Kim Meyers In August 2019, the families of the late Ed Krystowski and Howard Born gathered at the Lorain County Fairgrounds to honor two men who gave year after year, making sure the fair went off without a hitch. "Those two guys, they grew up with the fair all their lives," said fair spokesman and past President Kim Meyers. Before their dying, he sat down to listen to them talk about their decades as implement dealers, donating to 4-H kids' projects and their love for the annual celebration of agriculture. Reminiscing with Krystowski and Born's families about all they had accomplished is Meyers' favorite memory of the Lorain County Fair, he said. "It was the families, the tradition, the hard work they put in, the love," he said. Charisse Nikel "My favorite memory is during 2020 when we didn't have a fair and it was so stressful," said longtime Lorain County Fair Secretary Charisse Nikel. "We had to return all these refunds. … Someone from the Greater Ohio Showman's Association showed up and gave me the Fair Secretary of the Year award." It was a depressing year, she said — only the Junior Fair carried on, and with most of the public barred from the grounds. But the recognition in the face of overwhelming adversity made all the difference, said Nikel. She's also partial to the memories made each year just before the official opening of the fair, via the annual hay bale decorating contest. Nikel runs the event and said every year there are more entries, and they get more elaborate over time. "I love seeing the creativity," she said. Lorain County Prosecutor J.D. Tomlinson The Firelands Schools graduate said the fair was "a big deal" when he was growing up, and what he remembered most was how people camped there sometimes all week to spend it with friends and family. "Families took a vacation from work and spent it camping at the fairgrounds. It created this kind of community atmosphere in the back where the campers are," he said. "Fireplaces and people surrounding them and having a good time. It was an atmosphere where people spent the whole week there camping out. You'd get people who for decades would have the same group. ... Families and groups of families camping there for years and years, who are still there." Randi and Keyth Robinson, of Grafton When Randi Priddy met Keyth Robinson at the Lorain County Fair in 2011, it wasn't love at first sight. The pair were each out with a group of friends when they saw each other near the tractors, and later hung out near the grandstand. But it would be more than a year until they really started talking. At the time, Keyth Robinson was living in Italy with his family, as his brother was stationed there in the Air Force, but moved back home to Lorain County that winter. Once back, he looked up Randi on social media and the two started talking. The pair's first date was at the Lorain County Fair in 2012 — they had a caricature drawn together — and they've been going just about every year since then. They got married in 2016 and that caricature from their first date joined photos from their wedding. It's a tradition they don't plan to stop any time soon, even if it's just going in the evening for a bag of kettle corn and to walk around and see what's changed. "Obviously life gets in the way and we may not be able to do it every year, but hopefully we'll be able to," Randi Robinson said.