North Carolina Now; North Carolina Now Episode from 10/20/1995

It's the largest the biggest the most bodacious the North Carolina State Fair moves into its closing weekend. Good evening everyone I'm sure I welcome to the Friday October 20th edition of North Carolina now we are live at the state fair. Hello everyone welcome to this Friday edition of North Carolina now thanks for finishing your week here with us at the North Carolina state fair this is our last live broadcast from the fair. So despite the rain we promised to make it a good one. We've had so much fun bringing the sights and sounds of the state fair to you and tonight is no exception. I guess we knew that all the gorgeous weather we've enjoyed all week here had to come to an end of Ventura Lee but the rain hasn't dampened the spirits of fair goers they either found ways to protect themselves from the

elements or decided they just didn't care if they got a little wet. But needless to say it didn't make the indoor exhibits and covered eating areas much more popular. All week long our Michel Louis has been dying to get back here to the midway. Tonight Mitch takes us on a tour of the sideshow zone. If you had your fill of rides and the food at the fair and would like some of the strange the bizarre the unexpected that followed you meet Angel the snake girl the non-venomous vixen who has been doomed to a life of slithering for the past 20 years. Seems like you're an interesting person I just curious what are you doing here.

I mean honestly I'm not going to tell you don't write any advice when they bother you so they don't. Perhaps in the been your predicament. JT he's the front runner. It appears that women are a large part of the site shows at the fair. If Guerilla girl didn't suit your fancy there's the world's smallest woman who stands just 28 inches tall. If you're looking for a woman without a good head on her shoulders perhaps the headless woman is more to your liking. If you're into animals one unusual attraction is the world's largest wrapt straight from the wild in South America. If you think the rats wild. Wait until you see this at all right. I can't help but think this is Congo the wild man formerly a

budding law student until drugs drove him crazy. I decided to pay Mr Congo a visit. I'm looking on that. We come home and you have a sticker that says you know don't do drugs. What. Why is it there. You look at me and I think different strokes for different folks. I understand the situation. Why buy the stick. I got a question. What do you do in your free time. It's been nice talking to the Congress on usual method and

convincing folks to say no to drugs. I had a sobering yet chilling impression on young page Knickerbocker. She says she doesn't want to experience the effects of drugs or Congo any time soon. Let me call what you want to go back and see if we do. You may think there isn't much demand for these types of sideshows at the fair but show operators say these exhibits get almost as much attention as the fair rides. The rain may be keeping some people away today but there are still been a steady crowd of people walking through the fairgrounds. Yesterday was the busiest day of the fair so far more than 93000 people visited the Fair on Thursday. Many of them taking advantage of free admission with a donation of Winn-Dixie canned goods. The seven day total for the fair now stands at more than 450 2000 about 37000 ahead of last year. And the really big crowds are yet to come this weekend.

All these people attending the fair have so much to see and do when Andre Cates Bailey discovered the fair offers many opportunities to spend spend spend. Here with countless opportunities for fun food and excitement. But inside this building you can purchase everything from furniture to footwear. From the moment you walk into the building you're bombarded with merchants pushing their products. There is food. Peanuts sausage and eggs and cotton candy made from honey. The artificial flavoring or coloring that made it actually good and actually good for you. Can you leave a little bit of calories. Not many that. And there's milk wonderful milk. Of course everything is grown or raised in North Carolina and the vegetables grown in our state are the best. So why not buy the best to cut them.

This guy really great here we keep coming back to the product of the product. You know we couldn't keep coming back year after year. But now after you cut your veggies you have to cook them. And what better way than with one of those cookware. You say you want more. Well it's all there. There's music for the soul already recorded. Or you could make your own with a fair organ. You could broaden your mind with the encyclopedia you buy. It's like about one fourth of our business comes from working state fairs I think oh this is a good deal for you. Yes ma'am Plus it's fun. The fares here the popcorn for the people here. So we're going to get out of course after that great meal.

Soothing music and all that reading. You need a little relaxation. What about a massaging recliner. You can go now I'm staying but go on we did that was so much more to see and buy jewelry of every kind. Ties to express your personality and shoes. Yes. Shoes to last a lifetime. What did you say you want magic. Well how about some magic to him. The very first time that you do it in their homework you should would call three dimensional art. Yeah I was hooked. It was a bargain. I thank you. There is also a perfect opportunity for various state agencies to have direct contact with the public and they're all here. Governor's advocacy the ferry division the State Employees Association and what seems like every branch of law enforcement if you like that you have.

Thanks to the highway patrol has a special message for young folks always telling us what this movie is going to keep going. Please. Mama always knew there was so much to do it was hard to leave but leave I did. After that final purchase. What a bargain and healthy too. But I hope Audrey brought back some of that cotton candy for me. I have a new friend with me to brave tonight so we're not there to help people tonight's raffle winner. What's your name. DAVID And how old are you. I'm tan and where you're from Raleigh. Great what is your favorite thing here at the fair. There's a Ferris wheel great well why don't you give this thing a spin here and we'll pull out tonight's winner. OK. Reach in there and pick out a name.

Okay this is our last live broadcast here at the North Carolina now state fair. But however you and CTV compound will be here all throughout Sunday when the fair draws to an end. So you still have plenty of time to stop by and sign up for our nightly drawings tonight we're giving away the Judds concert tour video and tonight's winner is Andrea Hamilton of Durham. So Andrea your prize will be mailed out to you. Don't forget to stop by and sign up for a raffle drawing the U.N. CTV compound is located at the southwest corner of Dorton Arena. And the U.N. CTV compound is just one of the attractions you can visit while you're here at the fair. There is so much to do just take a look as you listen to the music of the drifters who will be performing tomorrow night in Dorton Arena. Slow goes on. It's

time to take a break from the fair for just a bit to check in with Michel Louis at our very dry North Carolina now news desk to fight out what else is going on around the state. Hello Maria. Good evening everyone. Fifteen million dollars in federal funds may soon be headed to North Carolina to build more prisons. State budget director Marvin doormen says the funds are likely to arrive later this fall. That could mean good news for several other state programs doormen says of the state does receive the federal funds. Other state agencies will get to split up the 15 million dollars of state money. The General Assembly allocated for prisons during its last session. The big contenders for the leftover state funds are an electronic food stamp program and several North Carolina cities that want to put in new sewer and water systems and Onslow County hog farm blamed for spilling 25 million gallons of animal waste into the New River this summer is

cleaning up its act. State Attorney General Mike Easley says oceanview farms has agreed to repair its broken waste lagoons. The agreement came today as part of a consent judgment between oceanview farms and the state. In addition to repairing its lagoons the hog farm will also have to get a state discharge permit and reduce its hog population in proportion to the amount of land available for spraying waste. Senator Jesse Helms unlock fair claws have locked horns with state will Senate Democrats over a judicial appointment. The spat may have ruined a rollie lawyers chance to become the first black judge on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals this OCA to press reports that Senator Helms and Farrah cloth have successfully blocked the nomination of Charles Becton. Both Helms and fair cloth say they believe Beckton is qualified for the job. But Helms says he won't support the nomination after Senate Democrats allegedly opposed and mistreated his choice with the same position back in 1991. The number of child abuse and neglect cases in North Carolina has dropped for the first time since 1987

according to the Winston-Salem Journal state social workers dealt with at least a thousand fewer child abuse cases in 1995 than the year before. Officials with the state's Child Protective Service says that it Klein may be the result of an improved economy. And now for a look at tomorrow's weather it will be a bit cool in the western part of the state with a boom topping out at about 45 degrees highs while the rest of the state will be in the 60s. Partly cloudy skies prevail tomorrow. However it may be cloudy in Boone and Wilmington is expecting sunny skies. There's also a possibility of showers around Elizabeth City. In business news a Swedish company called store flooring has decided to locate its North American headquarters in Garner. Company officials say the new 20 million dollar plant will initially employ 75 people and the workforce should grow to 300 by the end of the decade. The stock market retreated today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell seven point fifty nine points to forty seven ninety four point eighty six on the New York Stock Exchange three hundred eighty eight

million shares traded hands both the Standard and Poors and the Nasdaq composite indexes were down today. And now for some stocks of North Carolina interest a. Let's go back to Merida live.

Thanks Mitch. You know throughout this week we have taken very special attractions at the fair. Tonight we visit one of the most popular places on the fairgrounds the village of yesteryear where you can see dozens of different types of artists practicing their old fashioned graps. On that lovely piece was shot and edited by Michael.

Well another proud tradition at the fair is the 4-H Club for a head heart hands and health. Has been in existence here in North Carolina for 86 years has changed over the years but it still plays a vital role in the development of young people. And here to talk about what 4-H means to North Carolina is you is there in May Kenny a 4-H youth development. Mr. McKinney First of all thank you for joining us tonight on this merry night. Glad to be with you. Tell me a little bit about you know when I think a 4-H I think of the of the children raising the farm animals to bring to the fair but I know it's changed quite a bit over the years what does foreach do now. Well for I still deals with young people like David who just made the drawing the young €10 and David's sister Amy was sitting on a bench here with me when she was 12 and she was here with him and we deal with young people like Amy and David all over the state. There are 300000 young people who deal in work in 4H across North Carolina. They work in clubs. They work in special interest programs that work in special school enrichment kinds of programs. And we do have a proud

tradition of working with young people in lots of different ways. We also have 35000 volunteers involved in the foreach program and I've been asked to make you an honorary 4-H volunteer tonight wonderful now could only have called me and I don't think you are free. There are thirty five thousand volunteers now eight thousand of those volunteers are teenagers a little older than David and I amy we find that young people who begin to volunteer early in their lives learn that service is a major part of growing. We try to do that quite a lot of work with teenagers working with younger youngsters so the volunteers get just as much out of it is the young people do. Right how has your age changed in terms of has it gotten away from the agriculture a little bit moved more into technology or it still has its roots in the traditions of rural America and they are very present here at the very young people come in show animals. The idea of the value of the individual the value of the family and the community are all there. But the demographics of our state have changed drastically since 1999. Only about 3 percent of our population

live on farms any longer. We have a larger urban population now than we have farm population so we have more for its units in urban centers than we do in farm settings. I know that's a natural result of that those demographics and the 4-H clubs who are located like maybe in downtown Charlotte do things a little bit differently than some of the clubs that are mainly located in the rural area. What young people do in the clubs and in the units are based on the interest of the young people for each is designed to empower the young people to find what they're interested in and then give them adult guidance to help to move toward that in terms of career planning and just learning about things they're interested in in a context of education so they direct it themselves which keeps their attention much more. All those materials are based on resources that come through the college of agriculture and life sciences at North Carolina State and the cooperative extension system. Which are located in offices in all 100 counties and the Indian resident Cherokee Indian reservation so we have professionals to manage the programs through the land grant university.

Wonderful We have just under a minute so very quickly what are some of the things that foreach has done here at the state fair. Young people are always here showing animals which gives them a great responsibility. We also have a huge responsibility in the education building. We have competitions and photography entomology where young people bring butterfly collections and then we also have a large crafts competition here where young people whether they're for eaters or not can bring their crafts in and have them judged in the way. Well great there in McKinney thank you so much for being here tonight for it provides such a valuable service to North Carolina young people and thanks for the convo we're going to put you to work for. Thank you. Since we've been here talking to all kinds of people from farmers to sideshow man about their experiences at the fair today Bob Garner spent some time with a group of fair growers who rarely have their voice viewpoints aired. You know animals are normally kind enough to keep their thoughts to themselves. If they didn't they'd all rise up to this roof in a tremendous babbling crescendo. But what do they think about. Let's listen.

For example here's the Grand Champion Beryl dozing beneath this first place Pinot First of all a barrow is a castrated bore so I guess to begin with we can assume a basic undercurrent of resentment. Grand Champion grand champion. Yeah that's me. And I hain't. Yeah that's my owner Bayani she's country sausage. So what do you think do you think these animals think. Sure. What do you think they're thinking about. Well they're thinking about what they're going to do tomorrow when they wake up I suppose at least they probably do pretty much the same thing every day don't you think. I would I would think so they probably lay there every day wondering what they're going to do planning their day. Yeah there are a lot of things that can happen to a cow at the fair. Most of them bad. It may be no worse than a bath with no hot water or it may be the milking booth. Hey you want to call fenders lighting up there. Just get away from me. I'd rather do it myself. Rescue me. I want to own one. Very cute name.

I wanted Santa haircuts are a bad deal if you're a cow you get a mohawk whether you want one or not. But it gets worse. Some people actually have the nerve to bring the recipe books right into the stall right where we can see them. Yeah I hate when that happens. Let me tell you about the fan my cousin was here last year and look what happened to him somehow becoming a person has to be the worst. Whereas it wouldn't be nearly as bad to become something like a bomber jacket. The real pits though would be being turned into a lot of small objects like hat bands. I've noticed a real difference between cows that look serene and cows that look worried. There are a lot of them that look worried. How do I look worried. I don't know they just have a worried expression on their face some of them are jittery you know they're skittish more so than others but I don't know about Warry. I have food put in front of them the other end is taken care off on milk and no worry all about worry without worry.

I already but some cows never worry. They're on the make. No matter what happens a big beautiful hunk of beef. Come on over here and let's make our own hay. Our friend the Barrow is still deep in thought that chicken may cackle when it lays an egg but for me it's total commitment. Motherhood as a long term commitment when you have a litter of 10 how you want them there. I can't wait to get my own Lou. This one is no doubt developing some sort of ostracism complex. He'll probably be in therapy in a few years over in the poultry tent vanity vanity. So tell me the truth. Do you think that adage too much or pure panic. Don't squeeze me. Well if you're an animal at the fair you ultimately come back to a certain degree of resignation. I think I feel like sausage today. OK. Bob was only kidding. Please don't send us letters.

Well we've had such fun here at the North Carolina State Fair in fact I hope you at home enjoyed watching these live broadcast as much as we've enjoyed bringing them to you. I want to thank all of the U.N. CTV crew who have worked so hard all week long bringing these programs together through the hot days and all these rainy days they put in a lot of overtime and I really appreciate their efforts. On Monday we take our show back to our drive in North Carolina now studios. As you know the election is drawing near On Monday we'll bring you a story about the importance of you taking part in the electoral process. And we'll travel to Asheville where efforts are underway to restore the storks cemetery. Remember the fair continues until Sunday so take some time this weekend to come out to the fair. Stop by our U.N. CTV compound. Have a great weekend. We'll see you on Monday. Good night everyone. Ugh ugh

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