For 60 years, couple keeps fair tradition

The Hubbard couple hasn't missed a yearly visit in six decades.
By JEANNE STARMACK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CANFIELD -- Roy and Lorraine Davis strolled slowly along the streets at the Canfield Fair on Friday, hand in hand.
Lorraine was keeping a firm grip because, she confided, at age 81, she needed Roy to keep her steady.
"I hold on to him while we walk around -- he helps me," she said.
But there was one other reason for holding on to his hand so tight.
"Oh, and besides -- I love him," she said, laughing.
They browsed through the commercial building, then took in the Cboss and General Motors displays. At the Arts and Crafts building, they checked out all the baked goods.
Lorraine spotted her favorite kind of pie, rhubarb, and her favorite cookies, the no-bake peanut butter and chocolate ones she makes so often that her grandchildren call them "weeklies."
She and Roy didn't seem extraordinary -- an older couple like so many others at the fair Friday enjoying Senior Citizen Day. But there was something remarkable about the Hubbard couple who've been married for almost 61 years, because this was no ordinary visit to the fair.
It was their 60th consecutive annual visit. Since they've been married, not one year have they missed.
Satisfying their appetite
After they left the Arts and Crafts building, they decided it was time to get something to eat. They made their way to the Austintown Community Church cafeteria, because in years past it was a favorite spot. But the cafeteria wasn't yet open for lunch, so they headed back toward the Greenford Ruritans dining hall. They needed healthy food, Lorraine explained. They used to eat at food stands, but these days, that's no longer possible.
Over big pieces of roasted chicken, they talked, between mouthfuls, about all those past years. Lorraine struggled to cut her chicken with her little plastic knife and fork.
"I think it's about finger time, don't you?" she joked.
And Roy remembered other chicken lunches, when the fair was a lot smaller and families brought picnic food to eat under the trees by the parking lot.
"She worked all day the day before, baking a cake, frying chicken," he said. "I always liked the idea of that picnic."
Family affair
For Lorraine, their first fair in 1945 was special. She was four months pregnant with the couple's first daughter, now Cindy Pieton of McDonald, and living with her parents in Sharon, Pa., while her husband was away in the Navy.
Roy was home on leave when the couple caught a bus in downtown Sharon along with Lorraine's twin sister, Louise Escover. The three transferred to another bus in Youngstown, which took them to the fair.
In 1957, she was again pregnant when they went to the fair, this time with a daughter who is now Cathleen Harbinak of Brecksville, Ohio. Despite a much closer due date for Cathleen, Lorraine still wanted to go. "Two weeks later, I had a baby."
Lorraine said that over the years, the fair just kept getting "bigger and bigger."
She always liked the flower boxes and the baking displays.
"And I do love horses," she said.
Roy also enjoyed seeing the horses. "I used to have a pony when I was a kid." And he liked checking out the tractors.
After their daughters were grown, they would get together at the fair with them and with grandchildren. Not everyone makes it every year.
Denise Dugan, the couple's third daughter, had come regularly but didn't make it last year, Lorraine said.
Dugan, of McDonald, is the mother of Lorraine and Roy's three grandsons -- Andy, 18; David, 16; and Jerry, 12. The Davises were looking forward Friday to seeing David play football for McDonald that night at an away game in Windham. They wanted to take time to get ready, so they weren't going to stay too much longer at the fair.
The fair had shuttle wagons reserved for the day for senior citizens, which the Davises appreciate. Lorraine said that before they left, they would use the shuttle to visit "a few more favorite spots."