Home arts participants keep tradition alive

PORTALES — For many participants in the home arts portion of the Roosevelt County Fair, winning takes second place.

The most important part of the competition, some said Wednesday, is to keep the fair running, so that future generations have a chance to participate.

Warren Funk of Portales has been entering leather belts, horseshoe art, and homemade furniture for five years. He won eight first-place ribbons this year.

Funk said he creates mainly to keep himself busy, but also noted that "if you don't put something in, the fair's gonna close down sooner or later."

"If my hands aren't busy, I go crazy. I wake up at 5 o'clock in the morning and I'm out in the shop just piddling, just doing something," he said.

Kathy Riedel said she's participated for at least 10 years, though she said it has likely been longer. Her five entries into the sweet cakes, baked delicacies, and food preservation categories netted her three first-place ribbons and one second-place ribbon this fair.

"I like to see my name. I like to do things and I like to show off what I do," Riedel said, adding that she hopes to instill a love of crafting in coming generations.

"My mother did freezing of foods, and so I just like to carry on the tradition. It's a dying art. You don't see that many people that do that," she said. "I've got a daughter now that's just started doing it. She's in her early 30s."

Shirley Wormington, home arts superintendent, said the crafts show young people the arts that were once necessary for survival.

"The quilting and everything was all for necessity. You didn't do it for the fun of it, but it was an art, a skill, and those are going by the wayside. I like it to show the younger people these skills and these arts that pretty soon are gonna be lost," Wormington said.

The Roosevelt County Fair, according to Paula Grady, keeps the "do it yourself" tradition alive through its strong participation.

"I enter because it's fun, and it's one of those things that if you stop entering, then the tradition dies, and I would hate to see a tradition as awesome as this die in an area like this," she said. "My generation of people, they aren't as involved as generations before us, and I enter just to kind of keep people from my generation going. I always encourage my friends and people I meet that are in my age range to participate."