Xenia

[W3WN]

Glad I made at least one year at HARA.

Just the facilities at Xenia seem suspect. I go to a lot of horse shows/animal shows. We've got a fairgrounds here which is even larger than HARA or the smaller Xenia location. I wouldn't dare trying to have a hamfest there. As you might imagine the whole place has been inundated with dung. You can't wash that out. The smell always lingers.

While that's acceptable when they have the Berrien County Youth Fair (which is animal focused), it's a real turn off to think of eating a cheap pizza slice and viewing radios in that type of venue.

I'll know more the next time I attend. But at face value it's uninspiring.

I'm glad I got to HARA once in the late 1980's, before things really went downhill. Watching it slowly fall apart over the last 20 years, and especially the last 5, has been... had been... sad.

But that's in the past now.

Regarding Xenia, you have to remember that the Greene County Fairgrounds was pretty much flattened by a tornado or weather event several years ago, and totally rebuilt from the ground up. So we're not talking about buildings that have been 'farmed' (farm-showed?) for 50 to 75 years.

What is really sad is that one W8JX is screaming long & loud that the GCFG is full of dung, used straw, and so forth. Of course, he knows this because... he lives nearby; he hasn't actually gone there and seen for himself. [ And frankly -- hi Frank! -- I'm getting a little tired of constantly being called (along with everyone else) a sheep to be sheared by DARA. ] It's pretty obvious his real gripe is with DARA, and he is going overboard to smear them, Hamvention, and anyone even thinking of going with the same stuff he alleges the buildings are full of.

We shall find out soon enough.