The Jackson Kiwanis Club School Fair

For nearly 50 years the Jackson Kiwanis Club held an annual school festival in downtown Jackson each October. Each school prepared for weeks for the big day. There was competition in classroom skills, athletic games and races, and plays and skits. School buses from all over Breathitt County hauled students and teachers into Jackson. Usually each school had something special to identify all of its students. Some wore caps, others had name tags or school signs. Thousands of students gathered, usually in the BHS ball field and lined up according to school getting ready for the famous march through Jackson. Some schools had bands which led their school. Others had only a single drum which was used to help keep students in step. For this was a marching contest. Students were judged on how well they marched through Jackson. Floats often led each school and they, too, were judged. Bands were judges. It was a day of much competition! After the march ended the students marched back into the fields and waited on announcements, etc. Then it was off to other contests. Who was the county's best writer? Best speller? Best runner? Best jumper? What school presented a play or skit the best? It was a fun-packed time. In later years students enjoyed a carnival and its rides in the afternoon. By 2:30 most everyone had spent all of their money and their energy and were more than ready to get on the school bus for a long ride home. Truly, fair day was most students' favorite day of the year. It was mine. It's a shame it was discontinued about fifteen years ago. (Seems like most of the things I enjoyed about school has been discontinued!) The following photos will help revive some of the memories of fair days of long ago.

Marching - About 1952

Gathering At Lees College - about 1952

Fugate's Fork School - about 1952

Kiwanis Truck Leads The Parade - 1952

Jackson City Band Up College Ave. - 1952

Arrowood School Marches - 1952

Gathered at Barkley Bowl - 1952

JHS Band on Lees College Field - 1952

National Guardsmen Lead Parade- 1952

A Truck Leads The Way - 1952

Little Red School Lined Up - 1952

Turning At Chapman's Corner - 1952

Marching Up College Ave. - 1952

BHS Band On Cherry Street - 1970

Main Street Fair Scene - Marie Roberts - 1973