Familiar faces feed fairgoers

Mary Smith always looks forward to the fair. Perhaps it’s because she has been a part of it for more than 40 years.

“Every year it just seems so exciting,” she said. “I enjoy the fair, I always have.”

On the first day of the Spokane County Interstate Fair Friday, she was selling fresh corn dogs to the many fairgoers who didn’t let blustery weather and gray skies darken their mood – many came armed with sweaters and light coats.

Smith manages the Zippy Dog stand, which she started with her husband, Robert, in 1959. Over the years, Zippy Dog has become more than just a fair regular; it’s a family institution. Four generations of the family work at the stand.

Her children take time off to help and bring along their children; they’ve all been helping since their youth. “We’ve been in food all our lives,” she said.

Smith, 76, has three children, 11 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren. She just became a great-great-grandmother in June.

Zippy dogs are different from corn dogs, Smith said – they’re made fresh, for one thing.

“It’s flour batter and they’re hand-dipped,” she said. “People can stand back and watch me dip them.”

During the 10-day fair, the stand can sell as much as 1,000 pounds of corn dogs. Some days are better than others – there are the $4,000 days and the $700 days, Smith said.

The Smiths first ran the business out of portable carts before moving into one of the old fairground buildings in 1963. Last year, they moved into a new space near the south lawn. When the business first started, the corn dogs were $1.

“That was considered expensive for a hot dog,” she said.

They didn’t change the price for more than 30 years, until about two years ago when they raised the price to $1.50. Now the corn dogs cost $2.

“We wasn’t out here to get rich in 10 days,” she said, chuckling.

Her dedication to the stand is unconditional. Even when she worked full time, she would use her vacation days to get things going at the fair. A few years ago she broke her shoulder, but that didn’t keep her away; she took care of business with her arm in a sling.

She’s there from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. and says she barely gets any time to see what else is at the fair.

“You can’t be out of the stand. It’s your business and you have to look after it,” she said.

On Friday, Michael Moran was busy helping his grandmother. He’s worked at the stand for more than 20 years, since he was 16.

“I’ve been doing this so long, it’s kind of second nature,” he said. “It’s grandma, she needs help. I just want to keep up tradition.”

Smith’s 12-year-old great-granddaughter also helps out after school, she said.

“She works the till like an adult and counts out the change,” Smith said, adding that when the girl was younger she would stand on a milk carton to reach the till.

Across from the hot dog booth is a cotton candy stall that Smith’s daughter, Mary Ann Couter, runs. Couter said her parents also started the candy end of the business in 1959. While Zippy Dogs hires some outside help, “it’s all family in the cotton candy stand.”

“It keeps the family together,” said Brandi Golden, Couter’s daughter, who’s helped out at the fair since she was 13 and remembers sleeping under the counter when she was younger.

The family has a year-to-year contract with the fairgrounds, but Smith said fair officials seem to like the work they do because they always ask them to come back. Customers seem to like it too.

“The same people come back every year,” Smith said.