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Sleeping at county fairgrounds from Alaska to Georgia and California to Maine gave the La Crosse couple a unique perspective as they worked on their book about county fairs.
“We’d camp at the fairgrounds because we wanted to be there at 6 a.m. when the kids were feeding the animals and mucking the stables ... and also at 11:30 p.m. when the carnival was shutting down,” Kratz said. “Staying there is not always easy. It’s hard and it’s challenging.”
Hokanson and Kratz spent the past 12 years traveling 40,000 miles to 90 county fairs in 35 states by Chevrolet or Cesna for their book “Purebred & Homegrown: America’s County Fairs.”
They present the nearly 200-year-old county fair as a fountainhead of American ideals and rural life, as a place of reunion and the most traditional of all celebrations.
“The American county fair is one of the last traditions that celebrates who we are or who we want to be as a people,” Hokanson said. “It is probably the least changed and most intact of all our cultural celebrations.”
The couple thought of the idea for the book 15 years ago during a 10-day trek. They were talking about things they remembered from home, and county fairs came up.
Hokanson was an author by that time, and they decided county fairs deserved pages solely devoted to the topic.
“County fairs have a long history,” Kratz said. “We set out in the area and the country to find that.”
Hokanson and Kratz discovered during their journey that each region has its own flair that can be seen at county fairs, often in the events and food.
“We always looked for local stuff. We would especially seek that out,” Hokanson said. “Each fair has its charms. There is a lot of regional variety.”
At a county fair in Alaska, Hokanson and Kratz found themselves at a wild blueberry pie contest.
Hokanson was able to convince the event superintendent Kratz was a pie expert, and when a judge didn’t show, her services were enlisted.
Kratz believes Hokanson was looking to sample the pies himself.
“It was really very fun,” she said.
County fairs continue to remain a strong tradition and are strengthening in suburban areas such as Howard County, Md., where people are buying small farms to have a rural lifestyle while living in town, Hokanson said.
Kratz said they see the value of 4-H and FFA and want their children to develop strong skills.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: “Purebred and Homegrown: America’s County Fairs” book signing and reading, with co-authors Drake Hokanson and Carol Kratz
WHEN: 10 a.m. Saturday at Pearl Street Books, 323 Pearl St.,
La Crosse, and 7 p.m. Nov. 3 at The Book Shelf, 162 W. Second St., Winona
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Name: Drake Hokanson
Family: Wife Carol Kratz
Occupation: Associate professor of mass communications at Winona State University
Other titles: “Lincoln Highway: Main Street Across America,” and “Reflecting a Prairie Town: A Year in Peterson, Iowa” He also edited “America from the Air: An Aviators Journey” with Kratz
Name: Carol Kratz
Family: Husband Drake Hokanson
Occupation: Physician assistant in family medicine at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center
Other titles: Co-edited “America from the Air: An Aviators Journey” with Hokanson
