I left the Lac qui Parle County Fair Sunday evening with a smile on my face. My favorite part of the fair isn’t food, the malts or the rides, but visiting with people. Working in the Q92 booth and seeing friends and family and even people I don’t know but they know me because I am on the radio is fun.

I had a few people join me in the Q92 booth during the fair. They sat in the chair next to me and visited for an hour or two. I love that. Friends, Bob Johnson, Julie Asfeld and Dan Tuckett, along with my brother Jim sat there with me. You would have thought they were KLQP employees. People were walking by and registering for prizes and I was doing double duty trying to visit with them and my friends. It all worked out well. Bob is a widower and good friend, he tells the best jokes and knows many people. It’s amazing at his age how many events he attends in the area. You will see Bob everyday at the fair. I think he took in just about every event in the Event Center. We had a long visit and of course Bob has to throw in a number of funny jokes. He’s a good guy and I like visiting with him.

Julie Asfeld works at LQPV and we serve on a couple of boards together at the school. Both of us have a love for marketing and social media. Sunday afternoon Julie and her two children stopped by the Q92 booth to visit and her kids wanted to go on the rides so off they went and Julie stayed to visit. She had a funny story to tell me about working her first cross country meet last Thursday in Appleton. I won’t go into detail, but if you see Julie around ask her about driving the golf cart during the cross country meet. I had a really good laugh. It made my day!

My good friend Dan Tuckett was another visitor in the Q92 booth. We were watching the Vikings game on my phone with disappointment as the Vikings lost in overtime. After the game was over we started to discuss our favorite foods at the fair. Dan said the ribs from the food truck at the rodeo were awesome. I told him I had their breakfast sandwich that morning and it was great. We shared our love of the milk shakes/malts. We both agreed that the salted caramel with pretzels was the best malt. I have started something at fairs posting on social media a malt a day which people seem to like. Dan is a good friend and we continued our time together talking about football and visiting with people that stopped by to register for prizes.

The Bartunek family from Dawson spend time together on Sunday afternoons at the fair each year. A number of years ago they asked to take a picture with me in the Q92 booth. We have done this now for 5 or 6 years. So now each year we make it a tradition to snap a picture. Two of the Bartunek girls, Sydney and Avery are now in college and moved away, so that leaves senior Laney to snap a picture with me. Sunday afternoon Laney showed up with a smile and we snapped our annual picture. For some reason, I have started county fair picture traditions. I have one at the Swift County Fair at Ribfest with Dale, Pat and Dick. It’s a fun thing to do.

My brother Jim was my other long time visitor in the booth Sunday. Jim lives near Brainard and is a truck driver. He had a class reunion Saturday night, so he was here for two days. Jim parked his truck in Liens Lumber Yard parking lot, which is right across the street from my house. Sunday morning our plan was to go to the Pancake House and have some pancakes, but when we arrived around 930 the place was packed with a line waiting outside. So we walked toward the rodeo to grab something from the food truck there. We weren’t disappointed, we both had their breakfast sandwich which was like a breakfast burrito. We walked back to the East Commercial Building and sat in the booth and ate our breakfast. At 11 o’clock we walked over and watched the Sherwin Linton Show. Jim and I have always gotten along really well as brothers and don’t get to see each other very often. It was nice to catch up with him at the fair.

My family came on Saturday and it was so much fun to watch my grandchildren going on the rides. I enjoy watching all the kids on the rides and all their smiles. County fairs are a great time to get together with friends and family. So, thanks to everyone that stopped and visited with me in the booth and we got to create some memories.