Saturday was a big day for me with the lawnmower race. I was out and about, running around and trying to get the lawnmower race put together, or the CarQuest Mowdown as it was called. But it wasn't like I was the only one out there working by any means, I was just the only one working who happens to write a weekly column for the newspaper.

Ben Bottomley was on hand Saturday morning with a bulldozer, making a track where once there was a horseshow ring. Bob Edwards and I were scrambling around trying to move fence and set up hay bales. Roger Choate and Trevor Nichols and crew showed up around 10 a.m. to help and then Gerald Leftwich and his inspections crew came on board to fix up their part of the afternoon. We figured out that we may need to tweak our rules a little bit, but overall they did a great job. You would have thought it was NASCAR, they had cut outs and everything to insure every mower was ‘legal.'

Tommy Calhoun helped with inspections and then checked the times and counted laps at the flagstand with Andy Royal, who also inspected. The stand was was loaned to us by Mike Caudill, the man who has one of everything (or at least knows where to find it).

Scott Smith brought us some hay that we borrowed from Guynn Wooten at the eleventh hour, we might have had to do without. We were glad that we had it a few times, with some of the wrecks we had.

Actually, we opened the track for practice runs at 3 p.m. or so and had more wrecks in practice than we did in the races, if I counted correctly. This lawnmower racing can be dangerous business. When Tommy Andrews pulled in with his mower, I was surprised at its speed. I think he was, too. During practice he wiped it out in the second turn and took out a section of fence. Tommy isn't 16 anymore, but he hopped up like he was. His mower didn't recover and he had to load it up and take it home.

Almost everyone I talked to felt he had a chance to win the whole thing, but it just didn't work out that way.

He wasn't the only one. Several times the faster mower went out due to problems with the skilled (or lucky) drivers going on to take the top spot. At first, I was more worried about someone getting hurt and us getting the race underway than I was about watching the race. By the end of the evening I was just as excited as anyone. I even found myself cheering on drivers who were trying to make a pass, like Jason Kelly when he zipped around Ted Mickalowski of Woodleaf, N.C. Ted's wheel feel off and Kelly, who had been trying to bump his way around him for several laps, finally got to make the pass. ‘This is racing,' I thought.

Later, Ronnie Woodie made the pass of the night over a driver from Stoneville, N.C. in the last turn of the last lap of his race. The crowd was electrified to see a local driver make such an exciting move. To start with, many local people, drivers included, were worried about people from other areas coming here and winning everything. It didn't work out that way. I think local drivers took first in every single race. That's says something about our homegrown boys. They know how to make a lawnmower go, that's for sure. I bet we'll have even more entered next year.

I just couldn't say enough about the way everyone just jumped in and tried to help us the best they could. It was simply amazing to watch. Even Ricky Royal of the Sparta Police Department, who came out to help with crowd control, ended up helping us arrange the races by their time trials. Brad Edwards was pulled from the crowd to flag. I know there are several others who did a big part in making sure we had a race that I haven't recalled, but I hope they all know how much it means to the Alleghany Fair Committee, all the people who raced and even the folks who got to watch. Somehow we ended up with two announcers and I am afraid I made one of them angry. That wasn't my intention, so I guess I need to drop him an apology.

As for the rest of the fair, our attendance was somewhat disappointing at times. We tried to put on good events every night, but the weather just didn't cooperate and many people still are bemoaning the lack of carnival rides. What we really need is more people interested in making this thing go, people with connections who could help us make it bigger and better every year.

My father always told me to never complain about anything unless I thought I could do better and was willing to try. Those are words of wisdom. One thing's for sure, we're doing all we can to make the fair work and I know that Theresea Williams, who is the fair committee's president, and several others have been working pretty hard to try and recruit a carnival. It isn't easy to get them to tiny Alleghany.

Speaking of the fair committee's president, it's a full-time job for awhile for Theresea and she even took a week off of work to come out and put things together. She has talked about giving it up after this year, but I hope she changes her mind. As for the remainder of the fair, of course the demolition derby is this weekend, which is always a big draw for the fair. It pulls in a big crowd and hopefully we can continue to have it every year as well. I am looking forward to watching what I think of as adult bumper cars again this year.

As for the mower race, I think we will see it continue to grow every year, just as the derby has. The key to making anything work is getting more and more people involved. Once you have local people putting an effort into it, you start seeing results. Also, when local folks race, more people turn out to see the race and more money is raised for the cause. Hopefully we can do a little more planning next year and get things off more smoothly. We almost forgot to run the last race of the night, but we did get it in. I was brain dead by 10:30 p.m. I had one fellow from Surry County tell me it was the best redneck event he had ever been to, which sort of made me feel proud. I guess there's a little redneck in a lot of us. It never ceases to amaze me what a few good country people can do when they set their minds to it.

I hope this doesn't get me any letters from the local women's group again. I hope y'all can forgive me, but I couldn't help but use the ‘r' word.

Get more tongue in cheek commentary this week's issue of the Alleghany News!

Email: allnews@ls.net