locally as the "Cow Blossom festival."[269]

Floris itself held a substantial fair in the years following the
decision to stop running a county exhibition. It grew out of the yearly
"Flower and Vegetable Show" which had been sponsored by the 4-H and Home
Demonstration Clubs and took place on the school grounds. The community
divided itself into committees which met year-round to plan the produce
and homemaking judgings, livestock shows and entertainment and the
result was an event of countywide interest. A program from the 1939 fair
lists among the categories "three summer squash," "best adult clothing,"
"best buttonhole," and "best Holstein heifer." Prizes consisted of cash
(usually one to two dollars) or practical items such as five gallons of
fly spray. Ironically the award for the best team of draft horses was
three gallons of oil.[270]

A good deal of pride in everyday achievements resulted from the
contests. Elizabeth Rice, writing of the excitement caused by the fairs,
recalled the year she entered a devil's food cake in the county
exhibition and "received the blue ribbon and a prize from Swann's Down
Company of a cake mold, measuring cups, spoons and a box of Swann's
Down cake flour." "I still feel 'up' over it," she concluded.[271]
Others took their entries a little less seriously. Emma Ellmore
remembered the year her mother simply cut a tangled mass of clematis
from the back trellis, stuck it in a white vase and entered it in the
flower-arranging contest, to win a blue ribbon from judges who admired
its exceptional artistry.[272] The day was concluded with a
"tournament," in which the neighborhood's young manhood vied with one
another for the honor of crowning their lady queen. Lance in hand, "Sir
Lancelot" or "Sir Frying Pan" rode at a gallop on a "steed" (often a
draft horse) attempting to spear a ring suspended above the track. The
winner reigned at the square dance that evening which capped the day's
entertainment.[273]

Blue ribbons and fair championships were respected and admired by the
neighbors and gave the recipient a certain amount of status. In a
community in which no one had much ready money, this evidence of
leadership or skill counted for a great deal. One person suggested that
a large family gave a farmer a certain standing among his peers, and
that homemaking was equally respected with the outdoor work. A clever
manager was perhaps most admired of all. As Joseph Beard remarked:
"There are