ROBERTSDALE, Alabama --- Mertis Childress remembers the early days at the Baldwin County Fair. In fact, the 94-year-old Robertsdale resident remembers the Fair’s very first days.

While Childress admits she did not participate in the earliest fairs which began in Silverhill, she has participated in some capacity every year since the fair moved to Robertsdale 62 years ago.

“Back then everyone belonged to an Extension (Homemakers) Club and every Extension Club had a booth at the Fair,” Childress said. “We would always come and put up an exhibit and serve food at the fair.”

In the early days of the Fair, Childress said, it was more about agricultural exhibits and demonstrations.

“Farmers and people from the country would come to town and spend all day at the Fair,” she said.

Unlike the Fair today which opens around 3 p.m., with the main attraction, the Midway, not opening most days until 5 p.m., in the earliest days of the Fair, the gates would open at 8 a.m., Childress said, and people would spend all day at various attractions.

“We had livestock demonstrations and competitions and all the Extension Clubs would have a booth with all kinds of crafts and food,” she said. “Today it’s all about the rides. I think that first year we only had one ride.”

But through the years, fewer and fewer clubs participated in the Fair with fewer and fewer booths.

“There are only a few of us left,” she said.

This year, Childress and her group, The Ole Ladies Sewing Group, set up a booth at the Fair displaying a recipe for a multipurpose flour-based mix used for making a variety of baked goods, everything from cakes and cookies to brownies.

Among the display are fresh baked goods which members of the club made in the days leading up to the Fair, Childress said.

The most popular among the baked goods are plates full of brownies and chocolate chip cookies.

“It’s what the kids want,” she said. “You can’t have kids over without brownies and chocolate chip cookies.”

The group, which consists of about eight ladies, has met pretty much every Wednesday for the last six years, Childress said.

“At first we met at different people’s houses, but a few years ago we decided just to meet at my house,” she said. The number of ladies varies from three to 10 every week. “We sit around, drink coffee, talk and sew.”

The group makes quilts and various other items, some for personal use, and others for groups to include in raffles and other fundraisers.

Most recently the group donated a quilt to the Baldwin County Library System, which raised over $1,000 raffling off the quilt.

This year’s effort for the Baldwin County Fair netted Childress and her group a blue ribbon but, she says, her days of helping with the Fair are numbered.

“I’ve committed to doing it next year, but after that I’m planning to give it up,” she said. After years of being involved with various organizations and serving at various events, at age 94, she thinks it’s time to start slowing down. “I never had children of my own, so I’ve always done for everybody else’s. Now that they’re all grown, I guess I’m going to have to stop.”

But, she admits, she has never been one to take life easily.

“I don’t watch much television. I’ve never been one to sit and stare into space and I really never liked to read,” she said. “I’ve always got to be doing something.”