Columnist John Moore’s sister took first place at the county fair with a photo she snapped on a Colorado train trip. Photo courtesy John Moore

The photo was taken quickly with little thought of its future impact. It was just one on the 36-count roll of Kodak color film that she’d bought for her vacation.

 My sister was on a Colorado trip. She booked a trip on a vintage train that traveled on vintage tracks. As the conductor made a final walk of inspection, my sister leaned out a window and snapped the shot.

 It was early morning. The mist of the mountain blended into the mist of the locomotive. The sheen this created gave the appearance of the conductor walking into another dimension as he wrapped his inspection before yelling, “All aboard.”

 It was one of those stunning shots that few photographers ever capture.

 The judges at the county fair thought so. That’s why they awarded my sister the blue ribbon for photography that year.

 She always had an eye for art.

 That’s the thing about art. Real artists see what the rest of us don’t. They see uniqueness. And they are able to capture and share it.

 Whether you’re taking photos, painting pictures, baking pies, or canning vegetables, how the person does it is key to how much the judges like it.

 Growing up in Ashdown, Arkansas, my sister and I learned award-winning things. Cooking. Writing. Being Grateful.

 Just about everything people did then was excellent, because everyone was taught to do their best. Doing your best was part of being a good citizen.

 Not everyone had an eye for photography. For that matter, not everyone had a camera or the money to buy one.

 But what most folks did have were the ingredients to make good food, and access to several someones in the family or community who could and would teach you how to make superb eats.

 Often, the incentive to enter something in the county fair came from two main sources. Either a long line of ladies in the family who had won blue ribbons as far back as anyone could remember, or from compliments at church functions.

 If someone’s cobbler or pie disappeared before the rest of the desserts at a dinner-on-the-grounds, this became a sense of pride for the cobbler or pie maker, and usually led to a suggestion of entering it in the competition at the next county fair.

 But don’t do what Andy and Barney did for Aunt Bea on The Andy Griffith Show. In the pickle canning competition, Aunt Bea had lost to her friend Clara for 11 years straight.

 Instead of telling Aunt Bea the truth that her pickles weren’t tasty (they called them, “kerosene cucumbers”), Andy and Barney claimed they were excellent.

 They had gotten rid of her pickles and replaced them with store bought. But when Aunt Bea decided to enter them in the county fair, they had to eat them all so she’d have to make more.

 Usually, we think of food or art when we think of categories at the fair, but there are many other ways you can win a blue ribbon at the fair.

 In addition to fresh foods and canning, people use their abilities for livestock, horticulture, quilting, or clothing. Fairs have categories for children, including coloring contests.

Competitions can be based on activities common to the region. For example, the Wisconsin State Fair offers categories in amateur beer and wine making.

 Back in the day, these categories were not found at county fairs in the Bible Belt.

 The Texas State Fair offers competitions in baking cookies, cakes, and bread. They hold a competition in May and the winners are invited back to the fair in October.

 You can also enter something you’ve knitted, made with needlepoint, or painted. The Texas State Fair has 14 arts and crafts contests with 1,100 categories.

 It’s obvious that we all have found different ways to excel. And we like to win.

 But for some, our society has drifted to a place where being good at something is downplayed because not everyone can be good at it.

 Don’t listen to those folks. Be good at something. Be good at everything that you can.

 Can pickles. Make a quilt. And enter them all at the county fair. 

 Win a blue ribbon. Teach the kids how to do it, so that when you’re gone, your blue ribbon is still around.

 Unless you’re using Aunt Bea’s pickle recipe. Then you might want to just hang out of the window of a train and snap a photo.

By John Moore

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