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markham fair saturday sept 26 1987 page 3 1987 president grew with faiif by nancy hoskin as one of the youngest mar kham fair presidents rick wan nop had his job cut out for him this past year a native of markham mr wan nop was raised directly across from the old fairgrounds at hwys 7 and 48 his earliest recol lection of the fair is of parking cars and entering school craft projects he could also be seen marching alongside his classmates from franklin street public school in the annual fair parade through markham living where he did the fair was a special attraction for mr wan nop hes never missed a year i parked cars on my parents vacant lot near the house earning extra income mr wannop laughed i received my first win ning ribbon in grade 2 with a drift wood lamp i had made he re called since the fair moved to its new home on mccowan rd just north of 18th ave mr wannop has served on several fair commit tees from the tractor pull and grounds maintenance commit tees to gates and admission he also takes great pride in being one of the members who re cently formed the highly success ful special attractions com mittee mr wannop served as a junior director on the fair board for two years an elected position de signed to attract younger adults under 26 years of age to serve on the board after having had a taste of lead ership he proceeded to advance up the ladder to his present posi tion as president mr wannop who is a farmer in markham helps tend animals and more than 1300 acres of land and animals in and around mar kham working on his wifes fami ly farm in locust hill married to his high school sweetheart susan the wannops have three children andrew 7 alison 4 and laura 2 though he has enjoyed serving as fair presi dent this year mr wannop says that it has taken many hours and a lot of energy which at times be comes a strain for someone with a young family there was a minimum of four meetings each month during the year and of course many many more as fair time approaches mr wannop explained rick wannop definitely has a right hand man not only with his vicepresident dave morrison but with his wife sue she has re mained active this past year helping her husband out by hand ling phone calls and the hundreds of questions that are asked in her spare time susan under took the job of addressing the over 400 banquet invitations sent out to the volunteers who help make the markham fair successful over the last few years the wannop crew has made the mar kham fair a family affair not only with ricks involvement but with sue entering photographs and cooking and their two older children entering photography and crafts for competition family brown at 87 markham fair by bruce stapley in a break with tradition the markham fairs country and western music show committee has decided to shelve the amateur talent contest which had for several years made up a considerable portion of the friday night festivities the show which is held in the cattle barn will feature two red hot country acts this year family brown and ronnie prophet western show committee chairman harold snowball couldnt be happier with the lineup they were our first two choices this year and we were able to succeed in lining them both up he said it will mean a bit of running around for ronnie prophet because hes playing in nash ville the day before and in richmond virginia the next after noon mr snowball who was fair president in 1985 explained that the amateur contest had experienced a dwindling interest in recent years both in the number of contestants and in audience sizes we thought wed try going with an allprofessional show this year he said the western show has always played to a full house and mr snowball sees no reason for this year to be any different the cattle barn seats about 1700 people what we are offering is entertainment for the whole family from young kids to grandmas and grandpas he says we feel its the perfect matchup for the tractor pull on friday night mr snowball has good reason to be excited about the choice of performers family brown and ronnie prophet continue a tradi tion of quality country performers who have played the western show groups like the diamond reo band the good brothers and the mercy brothers i family brown recently named group of the year at the cana dian country music awards are a much travelled international country music group they have won virtually every award in the canadian country music scene as well as a host of international prizes recent winners of the title of group entertainer of the year by the country and western music association in texas they were also nomin ated in each of the past two years in england for international group of the year they have appeared on numerous television shows including hee haw nashville now new country the tommy hunter show and the ronnie prophet show in fact it will be the family brown band that will accompany prophet for his performance at the western show mr prophet himself a native of nashville tennessee is no stranger to the area he did a benefit show for the late ed wide- man at the old arena some years ago and also performed as part of the stouf fville centennial program a seasoned country perfor mer mr prophet seems to attract enthusiastic audiences where ver he goes 8 harold snowball takes pride in the fact that the western show has become a fcatuf eattractiori 6fthemaf khamaifwcfeel it has always beena success we frytoplildrl 66d faynilj enfeftaih ment all you have to do is sit back in your seat and enjoy it the show is scheduled totegin at80 jniedqorsvyqnt open until 8 pm due to the length of time required torsetup and its first come first served says snowball so it would probably be a good idea to get there early to be near the front of the line markham fair president rick wannop left has the full support of his family alison 4 andrew 7 his wife sue and daughter laura 2 the markham farmer grew up attending the markham fair and is one of the fairs youngest presidents horse pull competition shows brute strength by bruce stapley take a team of belgian work horses each one weighing in at well over a tonandahalf har ness them up to a stone boat with an ever increasing load of cement blocks then watch as these muscular brutes strain to their maximum capacity in order to beat the other teams of equally determined animals the horse pull is one of the most exciting events that the markham fair has to offer an event that always packs them into the colosseum the teams of horses that come to compete are among the best at the sport in north america coming as they do from parts of canada and the united states these are not your average work horses says glen lewis chairman of the committee that puts the horse pull together each year they are belgians and bel gian and percheron cross each team must be trained to compete zr i tvvk v harry brillinger recalls early days by bruce stapley in the early 1900s stouffville was a junction for the grand trunk railroad it was the steam train from sutton that young harry brillin ger and his big brothers would catch at the junction then ride it to the markham fair it only took us about 20 minutes to get there he remembers that train moved pretty quick for mr brillinger a lifetime stouffville resident it was always a struggle to get his brothers to go and look at the animals his first love my older brothers just wanted to see the manufacturing exhibits i remember one year how fascinated they were by a company that was putting on a demonstration making the first steel nails they were making them in all different lengths they were much stronger than the old iron nails mr brillinger would eventually pull the older boys away from the nuts and bolts part of the fair long enough to see the animals the side shows and to ride the merry go round money was a little short in those days he recalls wed only have about a dollar with us of course admission back then was only about 15 cents hot dogs were a nickel his one brother finally started to take an interest in animals and one year rode a horse bareback to the fair along with its colt both animals won first prize in their category as the years went by mr brillinger became involved in a gardening business on the 9th line of stouffville producing roses carnations mums and snapdragons he became too busy to be able to attend the markham fair although his father was a judge at the fair for veget ables and flowers for several years gin fact there were always those people mr brillinger recalls who would come to their gardens wanting to buy flowers to display at the markham fair mr brillingers dad had to tell them that that was against the rules that they had to grow their own to be legitimate today harry brillinger is 93 years old he hasnt been to the fair in a long time but still holds fond memories of the days when he and his brothers would head off by train for a great day of socializing and overallenjoyment in such a gruelling event and these horses are ready the first question that comes to mind for the uninitiated is that of the potential for cruelty to the horses cruelty is not tolerated plain and simple the rules gov erning the sport specifically state that no abuses of the animals shall be allowed either in the form of slashing with lines or whipping teamsters soon come to learn the limitations of their horses and will pull their team out rather than have them risk injury attempting to pull a weight they are incapable of moving the competition is divided into two categories the light horses with a maximum girth of 165 in ches and weight of 3300 pounds or less and the heavy horses which have a bigger girth and weight each teamster has three mi nutes to hitch his team then six minutes to complete the pull three cement blocks are added to the stone boat with each pull and the team still moving the load at the end wins the winning team gets 210 in prize money with each of the approximately 25 teams guaranteed at least 90 this is the big league of horse pulling says mr lewis thats why we get the big crowds lewis himself comes by his in terest in heavy horses honestly for 22 years his parents gord and lois lewis of uxbridge have bred clydesdales for show glen and his brother stephen who is also involved with the horse pull have always had a love of horses the lewis clydesdales will be showing at the markham fairs heavy horse show on the thurs day and friday of the fair the horse pull starts at 7 pm on saturday night it is a weather resistant attraction which makes it a safe bet for viewing on those years when the weatherman is less than cooperative and as al ways this year it promises to be an exhibition of awesome brute strength r f r s r