Susan Miller explains and tests a visitor's body mass index (BMI) at an exhibit at the Rockingham County Fair. Photo by Olivia McCarty.

One feature of the Rockingham County Fair is the vendor fair for local businesses. The new local business Edible Arrangements is at the fair to advertise.

“The booth has definitely already paid off,” worker Brittany Davis said.

Their booth cost $400. As an incentive, the booth offered free fruit samples and had a drawing every night to win one of their unique fruit bouquets.

Another local business that came to the fair to advertise their services was Rockingham Memorial Hospital. They have been present at the vendor fair for over twenty years.

“It makes people aware of services they may not have known we offered,” booth worker Susan Miller said.

The hospital offered free BMI, glucose, cholesterol, and blood pressure screenings as well as water bottles at the booth. Overall businesses say they enjoy the benefits the fair offers in advertising.

This is part of a series covering the Rockingham County Fair. For more, click here.

Sophomore Ellie Pruett directs parking at the Rockingam County Fair in order to raise money for the Cross County team. Photo by Olivia McCarty

Many Harrisonburg High School sports teams and clubs rely on different fundraising opportunities to increase their financial backing. The girls’ cross country team is no exception. On top of holding a summer car wash and bake sale, the team also worked at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds on August 18 and 19. Because of the numbers of cars traveling through the fairgrounds, much help is needed to accommodate the parking needs.

“We basically just wave people past the lots that are full so they don’t park in them,” sophomore Ellie Pruett-Fiederlein said.

Four of the team members worked two-hour shifts, each performing the same job of keeping cars from driving into the lots that had reached capacity. However, the drivers were not always willing to cooperate with the workers.

“It’s frustrating when you’re standing in the middle of the road to keep people from coming into the parking lot and they still try to get in and almost run you over,” junior Taylor McDonnell said.

Despite the sometimes trying nature of the job, the girls do agree that their profits will be appreciated when the cross country team needs extra funding.

This is part of a series on the Rockingham County Fair. For more, click here.

A sign advertises the upcoming pig races. Photo by Alison Dominoske

There are certain things one might expect to see racing around a track with spectators wildly cheering them on:  cars, runners, or horses. However, a first-year attraction at the Rockingham County Fair features some more unorthodox competitors: pigs. “Hollywood Racing Pigs”, a troupe of pigs who race for Oreo cookies, has been a staple at many county and state fairs over the last four years.

The ‘Hollywood’ part of the title comes from the silly names sported by the pigs, fan favorites being ‘Snoop Hoggy Hog’ and ‘Lindsay Loham.’ The ‘Pig’ part of the title comes from the pigs.

Cristal Coronas, one of the caretakers and trainers of the pigs, attributes the success of the show to the family-friendliness and general silliness of the race.

“It’s a family show, everyone can enjoy pigs named after celebrities racing around a track,” Coronas said.

The show tours all along the eastern seaboard, and has upcoming races at the Great New York State fair and several other county fairs. If the amount of fans the pigs earned in Rockingham County is any indication, they will likely be around the fair for many years to come.

This is part of a series covering the Rockingham County fair. For more, click here.

Funnel cakes remain one of the most popular "fair foods." Photo by Alison Dominoske.

Walking through the grounds at the Rockingham County Fair is a sight filled with thousands of flashing lights, fluffy toys lining game booths, and of course, rides. But perhaps the most important thing is the food. Bright signs advertise ‘gourmet french fries’, and ‘crisp delicious popcorn’. The “U-Pour It Slush Rush” is one of the main food attractions, with quite a long line.

Sara, who attends the fair every year, enjoyed a pink lemonade slushy.

“[The first time I came to the Fair] I liked it. The food is really good,” Sarah said.

Amy, a mother of two, has been a fair attendee since she was seventeen.

“[My favorite fair food is] definitely the funnel cake,” Amy said while waiting in line at a brightly colored food booth.

With thousands of people each night, the Rockingham County Fair staff must be at the top of their game all night, feeding the hungry masses and preparing for the next hectic day.

This is part of a series covering the Rockingham County Fair. For more, click here.

Seven-year-old Austin enters the pee-wee contest with his cow at the Rockingham County Fair. Photo by Olivia McCarty.

The Rockingham County Fair is known for rides, food, concerts and exhibits, but perhaps the largest draw is the wide array of animals. Many of the entrances lead directly to the area where animals are held. Animals include horses, cows, pigs and even a giraffe.

Beth Bazzle, owner of North Mountain Agri-Enterprises located in Linville, Virginia, has been showing her animals at the fair for years.

“We’re showing two heifers this time and we’ve been showing here forever,” Bazzle said.

Bazzle became involved in the fair as a result of her family.

“We had cousins who showed for years and so we started doing it. It sort of became a tradition,” Bazzle said.

Rebecca Chittum of Erk Farm concurs.

“For a lot of people, showing at the fair is something that they’ve been doing for years. Their parents did it and their grandparents did it and now they’re doing it,” Chittum said.

Bazzle and Chittum both say they get thousands of visitors and enjoy talking with them.

“By the end of the fair, we probably talk to hundreds or thousands of people. It’s nice to have people interested in what we do,” Bazzle said.

This is part of a series covering the Rockingham County fair. For the other stories, click here.

One of the Rockingham County Fair's many thrill rides: the Fireball. Photo by Alison Domonoske

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the words landslide, typhoon, and fireball? It is probably not an attraction at the Rockingham County Fair.

The county fair, taking place from August 16th-21st, attracts thousands of people for a week of food, games, and of course,  rides. The whirring and clanging noises from the various rides are inescapable throughout the entire fairground, and naturally it is the main enticement.

“The first thing I go to are the rides,” Jessica, an eager student at Wilber Pence Middle School, said. “It’s so much fun.”

Jessica and her friend Sarah, also a student at Wilbur Pence, enjoyed the ‘Typhoon’, aptly named for it’s whirling motions.

“The whole time I was thinking that I was going to die,” Sarah said, a little winded. “ After I stepped off I wanted to go again. It’s fun and scary.”

Connor Rutherford, an operator of the Typhoon ride is used to large crowds and many screaming teens. Thursday night was no exception.

“We get a few thousand people through a night,” Rutherford said. “There are a lot of teenagers. Most first time riders like it and go a second time. But of course there are those who are skeptical.”

How did you like the rides at the fair? Let us know in the comments!

This is part of a series covering the Rockingham County Fair. For more, click here.

Pabellon criollo a cabello, an authentic Latin American dish prepared at Arepera Las Chamas. Photo by Ama Ansah.

It was completely silent when we walked into Arepera Las Chamas Caribbean Food Restaurant.  Three tables of patrons sat in silence, staring up at the TV hanging in a corner, emitting suspenseful music with images of what appeared to be a greasy looking woman in a darkly lit hotel room and a man sneaking around with a gun. My friend and I exchange a glance.  Maybe we should rethink this? Thankfully we didn’t.  Otherwise we would have missed out on what was arguably the best food I’ve had all summer.

Hours of Operation:
Monday-Friday: 11 a.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Saturday, Sunday: Closed

Toy Story 3 logo.

More than ten years have passed since Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story first hit the big screen. There was little to remember from the first, aside from little green army men and little boys strapping toys to rockets. The second movie was a blur of a big man wearing a chicken suit intent on restoring a cowboy named Woody after he started coming apart at the seams.

On June 18, Disney/Pixar released the final installment to the Toy Story saga. Despite the fact that many of the characters from the first two movies did not make it to the end, it was pleasing to see that many of the main characters such as Woody and Buzz Lightyear, along with cowgirl Jessie and her horse Bulls-Eye, Slinky-Dog and Mr. and Mrs. Potato head had stuck around.

In a way, it felt like these characters had really grown up with us. When the second Toy Story was released, a lot of kids were Andy’s age and may have had toys that they loved just like he did. This made the story easy to relate to. Now, eleven years later, many of us remain Andy’s age and are getting ready to finish high school and go off to college.

A positive aspect of the movie is the ability to make the story hit home with kids and adults alike. Another positive aspect was that one would not necessarily have to have been a fan from the beginning. The absolute need to have seen both prequels is not that important whether one is a beginner or a long-term fan.

The movie is, quite simply, a classic. Pixar has done it again, providing a children’s movie with a simple, engaging story line and characters one can’t help but love. Toy Story 3 had the entire theater laughing at the antics of the new Ken doll to practically crying along with Andy’s mom as she said goodbye to her son.

After the movie is over and the slight feeling of nostalgia has set in, there is only one thing left to do. The inexplicable need to go out and buy your own Buzz Lightyear should not go unanswered!

View the Toy Story 3 trailer below!

Cuchi Guido's logo

Cuchi Guidos was not too crowded at six o’clock on a Tuesday evening. The staff greeted us warmly and as my friend and I climbed the spiral staircase, we were reminded of the downtown Luigi’s that was here before. It’s quite different now. There was a small stage and a very nice looking bar area.

We found the menu a bit hard to read, probably because of the script-y font. One item jumped out at me: the pizza fries, part of the “All American Sides”. French fries topped with mozzarella and marinara sauce…like a pizza (definitely an American invention). We had to try this.

One can order pizza by the slice, which is really convenient, as most places only offer full pizzas. A slice of pizza is a reasonable two dollars and toppings are fifty cents each. I tried a piece of plain cheese pizza and a slice of cheese topped with sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms and, black olives. My friend ordered the Fresh Tuna Salad with cheese.

Our waitress was incredibly nice. She was very friendly and was able to answer all our silly menu questions. It took a while for our food to arrive, but that may have been because we were the only ones there. Here, food is served on paper plates and, in the case of the salad and pizza fries, in a pie tin. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pie tin full of fries ever before in my life, much less one with pizza ingredients melted on top.

The pizza was good. It didn’t have too much cheese and the sauce was pleasant (it’s homemade apparently). The crust was very hard and crunchy, which could turn some people off, but wasn’t a problem for me. My friend enjoyed her salad. It had a lot of vegetables, from tomato to cabbage, so it wasn’t just fish.

The pizza fries were surprisingly good. The fries were crispy on the outside, due to the extra baking, and the sauce went well with them. The only problem was that the cheese kept falling off before we could eat it. Forks helped. We weren’t able to finish them though because, as stated before, there were a lot.

When we asked our waitress about dessert, she said she wasn’t sure they did that anymore and went downstairs to check. We looked through a menu at our table, but didn’t see any. She came back upstairs with word that they only had cheesecake. We didn’t try any because cheesecake is so rich and we were pretty full.

My friend wanted to take the remaining half of her salad home with her. We learned that the carry out container is a clear plastic lid that snaps on to the top of the pie tin. By the time we left, the restaurant was getting busy, which was nice to see.

We had a good time. I had heard bad reviews of this place before, but I have no idea why. I found it to be pleasant with a nice staff and good pizza fries.

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Apple logo.

“I was tired, not too excited; I just wanted to go back to sleep,” 14-year-old Tyler Staker of Huntington, West Virginia, said about waiting four hours to purchase the newest iPhone, released June 24^th.

Staker was not the only one anxiously waiting in line to receive his or her iPhone 4. Some eager customers had camped outside the local AT&T store since 12:30 a.m. in order to get their hands on one of the 40 available phones. There were similar stories all over the country as well; when the morning of the iPhones initial release came, many had been camping out for days to be amongst the first to get the phone.

“I had wanted one for probably two months. I wanted it mainly because it had more features and was cooler looking [than my old phone, the iPhone 3G],” Staker said.

Some customers have complained that when ones finger is placed on the bottom left-hand corner of the phone while making a call, the call is dropped (for that is where the internal antennae is placed). Still, reactions have been generally positive.

“I like it more than I anticipated. I saw pictures and thought it looked cool, but when I got it and saw how thin it was, and how great the display was, I liked it more than I thought I would,” Nick Pulcrano, also of Huntington, said.

Improvements over the iPhone 3GS include Facetime (where a camera is placed on both the front and back of the phone, allowing for more convenient video chatting), HD video recording, multitasking, and a 5 mega-pixel camera with a flash.

Staker admires the phone also for its Plexiglas screen, which allows for greater durability than its glass counterpart, and the folders feature, where one can store many apps in the same place.

Although neither Staker nor Pulcrano have put many apps or songs on their phones yet, they plan on loading their 16 GB phones to their full capacity.

“I just have to switch over all my apps and music from my computer to my phone, then I’ll be good,” Staker said.

While Apple is sure to come out with a “new-and-improved” product, be it an iPhone or iPad, at some point in the near future, iPhone fans all over the world at least have something to play with for a while. And if the hysteria leading up to the iPhone 4’s release was any hint, they will not stop playing and critiquing until that next shining beacon of technology is released.

Want to go buy an iPhone? Here’s where to go!

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