MacDonald’s Farm down to earth, honest

Ed Ferguson walked quickly through the carnival midway last Tuesday and headed straight for the agricultural grounds of the Bangor State Fair.

Since 1972, when he first brought his children to the fair, the ex-globetrotting Coast Guardsman had always preferred the smell of hay and animals to the greasy clouds wafting over the carnival. The barns were restful havens from the clamor on the hill, and every year he and his children sought out the pleasant company of the folks at the farm exhibits.

Their favorite was Old MacDonald’s Farm. Strolling through the familiar red barn, filled with baby animals and children, became a delightful family tradition. Eventually, his daughter began visiting the barn with her own small children.

Last week, though, Ferguson couldn’t find Old MacDonald’s Farm. There were no signs indicating its presence. The barn had burned down two years ago, and he thought perhaps the little exhibit, one of the last vestiges of the 144-year-old fair’s agricultural roots, had finally disappeared.

After touring the horse stalls, Ferguson spotted a tent partially hidden by a larger one and a big tour bus. Walking in, he recognized the place immediately, even without a sign. Old MacDonald’s Farm, he was happy to learn, hadn’t closed after all; it was just a lot harder to find these days.

“I was glad to see it still existed,” said Ferguson, who runs a toy-making business in Corinna. “With all the commercialism over there, the fair needs to keep some of its traditions.”

John McLaughlin agrees completely. In the 40 years since he started Old MacDonald’s Farm, the popular family exhibit has managed to hold its own despite a downscaling of the agricultural side of the fair.

“I’d like it to go on a long time, but I’m not sure it can,” said the 84-year-old McLaughlin, as he watched some children laughing at the clownish antics of a baby pig. “The fair’s changed so much. This exhibit doesn’t make any money.”

In the early 1950s, McLaughlin and Lester Felt, both farmers from East Corinth, opened the first Old MacDonald’s Farm in a tent near the fair’s Third Street entrance. They filled it with a number of animals and their young: goats, pigs, cows, rabbits, dogs, geese, ducks, chickens and a variety of caged birds. The exhibit was an instant hit with small children, many of whom had come from cities and never seen farm animals before.

Apparently, many of the parents hadn’t either. Mothers would point to the Nubian goats and ask what kind of dogs they were. Ferrets were mistaken for raccoons, and more than a few parents had to be told that the fat, round birds with the red wattles and the gobbling cries were actually turkeys.

When the exhibit moved into its own barn in the 1960s, everyone seemed to pass through it on their way to the pulling ring. As the number of visitors grew, there were always a few undesirables to contend with each season. One year, two drunks decided to find out if a goat would eat a lit cigarette. It did, to the roaring delight of the two drunks. McLaughlin’s son, who had little experience in public relations, gave the men a few sharp pokes in their backsides with a pitchfork and chased them from the tent.

Another pair of drunks once threatened to set the barn on fire with their cigarettes. When they refused to leave, one of the farmers who had supplied the sheep that year grabbed each man by the belt and collar and tossed them out.

When MacLaughlin became seriously ill in the 1970s — “spleeny” he calls it now that he’s on his feet again — his daughter and son-in-law took over the exhibit. In the early days of their marriage, Nancy and Gaylen Adams had slept with their two small children in the hay in order to watch over the animals. They knew the operation intimately, and continued running it as much for McLaughlin, who checked in daily, as for the familiar faces who came back each year.

On a winter night in 1991, while some homeless people were living in it, the barn caught fire and was destroyed. An airy tent was erected on the site last year and the display was judged the most outstanding exhibit of the fair.

This year, however, fair organizers forgot to put up a sign telling people about the display until halfway through week. Even then there was never a sign placed near the tent itself, the Adamses said, which caused many fairgoers to pass by without visiting. Rather than hiding Old MacDonald’s Farm, said Ed Ferguson, the city should consider making it more visible next year.

“They talk about improving the family atmosphere of the fair, but Old MacDonald’s Farm always had that,” he said. “A lot of love has gone into it over the years. It’s refreshing to have something down there that’s down-to-earth and honest.”