All right, they were buffalo chips. Not the nicest thing to hold but held relatively harmless by a squirt of antibacterial soap and a good hand washing. I was one of the participants in this year’s Buffalo Chip Toss at the Wicomico County Farm and Home Show. There were about 30 politicians who participated; mostly local but we did get U.S. Senate hopeful George English as a lone statewide candidate.
I probably should have thrown this one, instead I used a smaller model.
I’d have to say the “average” toss was about 60 feet, mine was a little under that at 55′-5″. By the way, the man clapping behind me is Clerk of the Courts candidate James Gillespie. I point this out because I swear that guy is everywhere I go. I even ran into him coming out of a workout in the fitness room at the apartment complex where I live (for now).
For the record, the winning toss was thrown by incumbent Clerk of the Court Mark Bowen, who threw his about 85 feet. Sheriff candidate Mike Lewis was second and County Executive hopeful BJ Corbin was third, all of them were over 80 feet. So I was well short of the money. But – being the lone Central Committeeman to participate from either party and as far as I’m aware the only candidate blogger to participate (Robin Roberts didn’t attend), I suppose I can claim the title belt in those two divisions. And I need to thank the nice lady (whose name I didn’t get) that took the pictures of me, whoever she is.
After the festivities I went inside to check out our party’s booth at the fair. Most of the signs I helped put up from working the booth Thursday are still there, only a couple additions have been made. I’ll be back over there to take them down shortly!
As you can see, several candidates and supporters are there manning the booth after the contest. From left to right, the gentleman that is half cut off with his back to the camera is Central Committeeman Blan Harcum, then it’s Jeremy Schonbrunner, the son of Sheriff candidate Doris Schonbrunner (in the red and white top), her husband Alan, County Council at-large hopeful Sheryl Peters (back to camera, red hair), current Sheriff Hunter Nelms, and on the far right with the cane, County Council at-large aspirant Lucy Graf. I wanted to see her throw a buffalo chip, but she declined to. By the way, the banner in the back is brand new and I helped with creating the tagline (“Preserving Our Values, Building Our Future”) at a recent Central Committee meeting.
Of course, most of the candidates had items there for public inspection. Certainly among the most eye-catching was Addie Eckardt’s hot pink signs and literature.
I found it sort of interesting that Ron Alessi decided he needed his own space. There are only two political entities at the Farm and Home Show, and you’ve now seen both of them. I notice a few other candidates with their items sitting at the Alessi booth, but no volunteers. Alessi was a participant in the chip toss, and I beat him as far as distance goes – of course I think I have about 20 years or so on him so it wasn’t quite a fair fight.
There’s one thing I noticed about this event though – the attendance isn’t what you’d expect for something that’s basically our equivalent to a county fair. It has the judging of the agricultural and artistic entities that one expects to see at a county fair (next year I may mount up and enter some of my photography) but it doesn’t have the midway and games that a typical fair has. Being that the show is held at Winterplace Park, obviously there’s room for it so I wonder why this is.
However, today I had fun out there in the lighthearted event that is the Buffalo Chip Toss, even though I didn’t win and was among the bottom-feeders of the group. There’s always next year!
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