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Racing, Trumbull fair hospitality gets in a person’s blood, campers say
By Ed Runyan
BAZETTA
For Gene Foust and Faith Houck of Jamestown, Pa., the Trumbull County Fair is down-to-earth and relaxing.
The couple has been spending a vacation week at the fair for eight years, setting up their travel trailer in the camping area, watching lots of motor sports at the racetrack and enjoying the friendships they’ve made.
The couple is very involved in the running of the Jamestown Community Fair, which comes up just after Labor Day. It makes them appreciate what the organizers of the Trumbull fair and the 4-H people do all week.
It’s what drives Faith to spend extra time and money each year at the Trumbull fair to make food and drinks available to the people who spend the week there like they do.
“We offer the coffee, I offer the food,” Faith said. “I feel bad because they don’t get to relax,” she said of fair organizers, many of them on golf carts moving from place to place keeping things running smoothly.
Running and participating in a fair can be like running a marathon. Many times people don’t have time to eat and stay hydrated, Faith said.
“I bring extra bottled water and juice drinks for the kids,” she said. “A lot of people come over to our camper. We’ve got the food, the treats.”
Tom Sawyer, longtime Trumbull fair board member, said he and the couple are friends.
“They love this fair,” Sawyer said. “They ask me, ‘Do [you] need anything?’ They would do it without a thought. They are the type of people who make this fair worth having. They are happy to help anybody.”
To Gene and Faith, fairs and motorsports are “in their blood.”
“We’ve made a lot of friends. It’s a very down to earth, safe fair,” Faith said. “The best thing is it’s very family oriented. It’s not that expensive.”
On Thursday, Faith’s niece, Brittany Houck of Williamsfield, Ohio, and her boyfriend were watching racing with Faith and Gene.
“I did 4-H, and I come back every year,” Brittany said of the Trumbull fair. “It’s in my blood.”
Frequently, Faith’s grandchildren come to stay in the camper a day or two during the fair.
Gene first became involved in racing when he was a teenager in James-town. He was involved in owning and building cars for 47 years, racing out of Pittsburgh; Hagerstown, Md.; and other places. He’s in charge of the motorsports at the Jamestown fair, while Faith organizes events such as the queen contest.
Faith went to high school at Joseph Badger in Kinsman and became a fan of auto racing and the racing Blaney family of Hartford before she was a teenager.
She called the late Lou Blaney “the greatest race car driver I’ve ever seen” and has also enjoyed watching his sons, Dale and Dave, race at places such as Mercer Speedway and Sharon Speedway and now Dale’s son, Ryan, a NASCAR driver who won Pocono this year.