MONTPELIER STATION A late-afternoon thunderstorm swept across the Orange County fairgrounds, soaking the parched fields and washing away the brutal heat.

When the skies cleared, the oppressiveness had been replaced by a blast of fresh air, much like the Orange County Fair itself.

In this high-tech, everything-all-thetime age, county fairs are throwbacks, representative of unhurried times and simpler tastes. No fair is less razzle-dazzle -- or more proud of it -- than the Orange County Fair, which features a watermelon-eating contest, a sack race and goat-milking demonstrations. A true throwback, the fair has no midway of flashy roller coasters or carnival barkers. Its most popular ride? A train of kid-sized barrels towed slowly behind a farm tractor.

"We call it an old-fashioned country fair," said Keith O'Connor, president of the fair, as he strolled around the fairgrounds on the last Friday in July, pointing out the 4-H tents, the oxen rides and the stages where local musicians would play. "It's just a different feel when you come to something like this."

Having no midway, he said, "makes it a very family-oriented fair. Parents come out and they don't mind letting their kids run. They feel very safe out here."

Michelle Goodwin, whose family operates a dairy farm near Gordonsville, said she pretty much knows everybody in the community so she's happy to have her children roam the fair.

"They can go watch the shows, play with the kids, play with the cows," said Goodwin, whose four children are third-generation fair participants, tending to their own cows and calves and entering them in livestock contests. "It's nice. You can just let them go."

County fairs are juicy slices of the American pie, dripping with sights, sounds and smells that capture the communities that put them on. They are the land of prize-winning canned beets and funnel cakes, volunteer-run social events that give neighbors a good excuse to gather in the name of fun and tradition. In Virginia, we're in the middle of county fair season, leading up to the Virginia State Fair, Sept. 27-Oct. 7.

County and state fairs are still going strong, said Jim Tucker, president of the International Association of Fairs and Expositions in Springfield, Mo. More than 3,200 fairs are held across North America. Tucker said a majority of IAFE member fairs reported steady or increased attendance last year, and many are experiencing similar success so far this summer.

"County and state fairs are doing well because they offer one of the few places in our society where people can gather together and share the kinds of moments that remind us why community and family matter the most," said Tucker. "They are fun . . . and offer an experience one cannot get from a screen."

The Orange County Fair, a four-day event held the last week of every July, is in transition. Since 1987, the fair has been held on the grounds of Montpelier, the home of James Madison. Next year, though, will be its last there. The fair has outgrown the space, said O'Connor, and will move to a yet-to-be-determined site.

Without the restrictions that go along with being a tenant on historic property, the fair might consider adding money-makers such as a tractor pull, a demolition derby and a rodeo, O'Connor said. Fund-raising for the fair is always a knotty problem and is currently accomplished with events such as a Valentine's Day dance and cow patty bingo. Don't ask.

Whatever changes might be made down the road, the fair will not lose its agricultural focus.

Which is important to kids such as 9-year-old Blake Hopkins, who wants to be a farmer when he grows up. At this year's fair, he showed off his two pigs, Hokie and Olivia.

"I named Hokie after the Hokies because I'm a really big fan," said Blake, a rising fourth-grader at Thomas Jefferson Elementary in neighboring Louisa County, "and I named Olivia after my girlfriend."

Five-year-old twins Meadow and Trinity Anderson of Barboursville tugged their goats, Elliott and Chandler, around the fairgrounds on leashes.

"They have fun with them," said their mom, Tiffaney Anderson. "They play with them just like dogs."

Hungry? Over in the outdoor food court you could choose from typical fair chow: food on sticks, plates swirled high with thinly sliced fried potatoes, thick milkshakes mixed by the 4-H kids.

Calvin Myers lifted the lid off his huge smoker to reveal a grate full of barbecued meat: turkey legs, pig's feet and ribs. Myers, a native of Guyana who operates a restaurant, Caloman's Kitchen, just south of Orange on Highway 15 (www.calomanskitchenandcatering.com), also was offering jambalaya, collard greens, and macaroni and cheese. Food for the soul.

"Only one cook in the kitchen, and that's me," he said with a laugh. "If you get another person cooking with you, they might do something different and that'll reflect on me. The spices I put in my food are my creation. Ain't nobody touching that."

He talked about how much he enjoys watching people eat what he cooks.

"I'll keep on cooking," he said, "and you keep on eating."

A county fair is a workout for the senses: competing aromas at the food booths and the smells in the cow tent; the squeals of participants in the messy egg-toss contest and the rhythmic dancing of the Hi-Horse Cloggers from Greene County; moms and dads hugging their babies close and children taking unruly calves for a walk -- or the other way around.

It was all as sweet as the prize-winning peach preserves in the exhibit tent where you could see the handiwork of local residents and a cabbage the size of a soccer ball.

Over at the Wild West Follies, a Texas-based traveling vaudeville show featuring "Frisco Slim" and "Ruby Rose" and a tiny potbellied pig called Peaches, the low bleachers were full of kids and grown-ups chuckling at the silliness. After the performance, Felicity Bouvier, aka Ruby Rose, said she works at fairs all over the country and she likes the small-town feel of Orange's.

"This is a nice one," she said. "The kids know their manners. They're respectful. Nowadays, so many kids aren't."
Contact Bill Lohmann at (804) 649-6639 or wlohmann@timesdispatch.com.

Contact Bob Brown at (804) 649-6382 or bbrown@timesdispatch.com.