The Rockford Smiles Southeast Spokane County Fair Turns Back The Clock, Turns Up The Fun
Only about 500 people live in Rockford, but on Sunday afternoon there was hardly a place to park in this tiny town south of Spokane.
A few thousand folks invaded to visit the Southeast Spokane County Fair, which Rockford has hosted with chest-bursting civic pride for 53 years.
The fair at Rockford is a far cry from the mega-events of big, countywide fairs. Thousands of people, not hundreds of thousands, come to see the cooking contests, carnival rides and cattle on display.
There was no one taking tickets at the entrance to the Rockford fair because admission is free. You could buy a Pepsi for 50 cents, a waffle cone with a scoop of ice cream for a buck and a half and walk through the poultry barn in less than an hour.
“I feel safe to let my kids run around,” said Cheryl Loeffler, extolling one of the virtues of the small-town fair.
Loeffler also liked one of the main attractions on Sunday, a variety show put on by the Rockford Rock ‘n’ Rollers, also known as the Rockford Interplayers.
For nearly an hour, the Rock ‘n’ Rollers were the biggest thing happening at the fair, drawing an audience of a couple hundred.
With a cast of about 20, the group gave their audience a 1950s-themed show of songs and skits.
Broadway stars they’re not. The men sang out of key. The women didn’t. Some of the dance numbers were klunky, so was some of the humor. But on the charming-meter, the Rock ‘n’ Rollers buried the needle.
Who couldn’t love a group of guys pretending to be 1950s teenagers. They wore blue jeans with the cuffs rolled up and white T-shirts that couldn’t hide the expanding real estate around their middles.
“It’s mostly just community members that want to have some fun,” said Marty Morphy, an area resident who was the troupe’s wacky master of ceremonies.
One of Morphy’s skits used constipation and a fictional drug called “Correctum” as the punch line.
“It took a lot of guts to do that one,” said an approving Loeffler, who watched the performance.
“These variety shows are so much fun and it’s great to see the community coming together to do them.”
And the Rock ‘n’ Rollers are certainly members of the community. Their cast included Mike Cooper, a church pastor; Micki Harnois, a planning consultant for Rockford and surrounding towns, and Cheryl Reed, who has “lived here my whole life.”
“It’s just fun. The only time we get to sing is in church or here,” Harnois said.
“We can act really stupid here and get away with it,” added Morphy. “I’ve been crazy like this my whole life.”
While the women swayed in their pink and white poodle skirts and the guys tried to look hip and cool, the troupe sang “It’s gotta be rock ‘n roll music if you wanna dance with me.”
If they forgot the words they could look at the first row in the audience where Reed’s daughter, Kaci, sat. She held up cards. On each, in big letters, were the words to the songs.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo