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09/18/2024 08:30 AMBack in the day, teams of oxen help plow the rich farm fields of Guilford. Tom Baker even remembers there were a few folks who still kept these magnificent animals when he was growing up in North Guilford.
This weekend, Tom will be back in the center of the action, where draft oxen, horses, and ponies still show their stuff, at the Guilford Fair. Established in 1859, this beloved shoreline favorite fair is Connecticut’s second-oldest agricultural fair. The all-volunteer Guilford Agricultural Society (GAS) organizes the three-day fair, coming Friday, Sept. 20, Saturday, Sept. 21, and Sunday, Sept. 22, to the Guilford Fair Grounds on Stone House Lane. The fair draws thousands arriving to enjoy three days of entertainment, events, shows, exhibits, and more. Learn more at guilfordfair.org
Tom’s involvement with The Guilford Fair started as a 13-year-old showing beef cows with the 4-H North Guilford Hay Shakers.
“It was a club established in North Guilford through a lot of the other kids that were in the 4-H,” says Tom. “I had fun training the cows and showing them.”
Tom signed up with his brother, Bobby, and another young teen who became a lifelong friend, John Hammarlund, who has been GAS president for the past 25 years. This year, GAS co-dedicated the 2024 Guilford Fair to Tom and John for their years of volunteer service and support.
As a kid showing cows at the Guilford Fair, Tom also began volunteering as a pit raker, helping to level the ground between pulls of competing draft oxen, horses, and ponies.
“I’d show my cows, make sure they were alright, and then I’d come over to rake the pit for a class or two. I’d go back and check the cows and go back to the pit, and that’s how I started,” says Tom. “When I was about 18 or 19, I stopped showing cows, and I continued with just the pit.”
In the pit, skilled drivers lead highly-trained animals as they prove their mettle by pulling weighted sleds for prizes in different weight classes. Tom says everything he knows about these powerful contests, which are rooted in agricultural heritage, was learned in early adulthood by working with a legend, the late Nick Naples of Durham.
Naples, who passed away in 2004, was famed throughout the agricultural fair circuit in New England and New York for his trademark booming voice calling horse, pony, and oxen pulls.
“John and I followed Nick around every weekend. He’d bring his microphone and scales, and we’d leave on a Friday night and go to the fairs. John and I would stay all weekend and work the pits,” says Tom. “Nick used to announce square dancing, too, but his main thing on weekends through the fall was all the fairs.”
From raking, Tom and John went on to become pit judges working with Naples. The two are also credited with elevating the program at the Guilford Fair in the years they have been involved in its leadership, beginning in the 1990s. They continue to co-direct the draft oxen, horses, and pony departments at the Guilford Fair.
Tom also brings GAS many years of expertise and equipment knowledge in the profession from which he recently retired, the excavating field.
“There was a company that used to run the equipment, but after they stopped doing it, I started operating the bulldozer and the payloader for the fair every year,” says Tom. “At the time I started, I was also still judging.”
The heavy equipment, which is contributed for fair use each year by Fischer Excavating of Branford, moves tons of weighted blocks onto sled “boats” set up to be pulled.
“Back before the fair came to the fairgrounds in 1969, it used to be on the Guilford Green, and they didn’t have to have a payloader,” says Tom. “They used pig iron, which was hunks of iron weighed beforehand, and a stone boat that was pulled flat back and forth. And every time someone would pull it, they’d take a hunk of iron and throw it on the boat.”
Tom’s no longer judging, but he still operates the heavy equipment and readies the operational end of the pit work needed each year at the fair, from setting up the Scale House to meeting officials who certify the scales. The pulls are subject to the rules and regulations of the Connecticut Oxen Owners & Drivers Association and Eastern Draft Horse Association.
Through the years, Tom says the Guilford Fair pit has hosted some incredible exhibitions of strength by massive animals who draw crowds to see them at work.
“The animals are like athletes. They are trained every day and they are worked every day; and the owners of the animals take care of them because they care about these animals,” says Tom.
The pit action begins on Friday night with two classes of ponies, followed by three classes of horses on Saturday, including the last “Free for All” class, when the big horses come out. On Sunday, the pit hosts four classes of oxen, Tom’s personal favorite.
“I had a couple of teams of oxen when I was younger,” says Tom. “A lot of towns on the shoreline had horses, but there was always someone in the neighborhood that had oxen. When I was growing up, there were four different people in Guilford that had oxen.”
According to GAS, when the Guilford Fair held its first opening day parade in 1859, it featured 426 yoke of oxen (as well as 40 men on horseback, decorated carts, wagons carrying agricultural products, and a fife and drum corps).
In its modern day iteration, the fair has several permanent buildings among its huge field hosting midway rides, tents and booths offering merchandise and fair food, and events and live entertainment. That’s all in addition to the traditional exhibits, such as those featuring farm animals, locally grown produce, and traditional baked goods that have drawn contestants vying for blue ribbons since 1859.
“Seeing the fairgrounds today, it’s amazing what they’ve done over the years. If we didn’t have the volunteers, it wouldn’t be what it is today,” says Tom. “Everybody works well together and helps out.”
Tom remembers pitching in to mow the fairgrounds in the 1990s with his son riding along and generally raising his kids as part of the GAS family. Tom’s daughters still show animals, one favoring cows; the other goats. For his part, Tom still raises beef cows.
Tom remembers attending his first Guilford Fair at the fairgrounds at age 9. All told, Tom’s been a part of the big event for 54 years and counting.
“I was just a kid growing up on the farm and I loved it, and that’s what I stuck to,” says Tom. “And what I like about being involved with the Guilford Agricultural Society is everybody’s good friends, and everybody’s willing to work with you and help out.”
For more information about hours, admission prices, events, and entertainment taking place at the Guilford Fair, visit guilfordfair.org