Young Chang The family most intimate with...

Young Chang

The family most intimate with the Orange County Fair prefers to

stay behind the scenes, or in the barn or behind the boardroom doors

or beneath the brim of a wide straw hat, depending on which Bailey

you’re talking about.

You might have seen the head of the family grooming goats or

cleaning pens at Centennial Farm. Jim Bailey, the 73-year-old creator

and former head of the farm, says it’s important that kids today have

a place to learn about caring for animals.

His wife Helen Bailey works in the Collections and Memorabilia

department. After a lifetime here as everything from a 4-H leader to

the cook in the pit barbecue during fair staff dinners, the

72-year-old now works in quieter and calmer spaces that contain other

people’s valuables.

Their daughter Becky Bailey-Findley wears sharp suits and works in

an office. The 48-year-old general manager of the fair heads up the

two-week-plus tradition of funnel cakes, rides and exhibits. As

someone who’s grown up at the fair and been intricately involved in

nearly every corner of it, doing paperwork, leading board meetings

and reporting to the state’s Division of Fair and Exposition (because

the fair is a state agency) is anything but administrative busywork

for Bailey-Findley.

“It’s like planning a party at your house,” she said.

You might have also seen Cary Bailey-Findley, her oldest,

transporting speakers and other bulky musical equipment from trailers

of visiting performers and onto the fair’s many performance stages.

The 20-year-old has blue hair this year -- he dyes it to match the

theme color of every fair -- and is based in a hidden trailer run by

his boss Rick Fatland, head of entertainment.

His sister Kaitlyn Bailey-Findley is an intern. At 15, she works

with the entries that get submitted to the fair’s various exhibits

departments. It’s her first summer getting paid for something she’d

do for free anyway.

“Even the simplest things you haven’t seen since you were little

seem so special,” Kaitlyn said, of the entries she gets to work with.

The youngest child of the Bailey-Findley family, 11-year-old

Tessa, entered a cake, a halter top and skirt and some other

hand-crafted goods in the youth department. She’s too young to really

work or run around -- and running around is a requisite if you’re

working at the mini-city that is the fair -- so her role is largely

that of a participant.

There are others.

There are three siblings to Becky Bailey-Findley -- Cathy

Wolkenhauer, Sue Silgailis and Bill Bailey -- who have worked or

still work in departments of the fair including admissions and the

bank. Their children have also continued the tradition of giving

their summers to the fair.

For Kaitlyn and Tessa, this means there are cousins galore to run

into at the fairgrounds. For Becky Bailey-Findley, this means her

nieces and nephews get to grow up with the same fair traditions her

own children do.

For Jim Bailey, having three generations of family members on the

fairgrounds means there are plenty of others to continue what he

first jumped into 43 years ago.

FARM TO FAIR

Jim Bailey was born and raised on a farm in Missouri. He milked

cows before going to school and, in the afternoon, did farm-ish

things like bale hay and plow corn and tend to the peaches and

apricots and apples. He did this from grade school through high

school, in a rural setting defined by rolling hills and bluegrass

pastures.

It was what all the neighborhood kids did.

But the one thing this agricultural world lacked was a fair.

“I feel I missed some things,” said Bailey, who was recently

relieved of being in charge of Centennial Farm and is now the

director of special projects and maintenance.

He majored in agriculture at the University of Missouri, married

Helen Bailey and served in the Navy during the Korean War for four

years, which led him to being stationed at El Toro Marine Base.

The family, which included Becky Bailey-Findley by then, settled

in Fullerton, where Jim Bailey taught agriculture at Fullerton High

School while Helen Bailey taught at various Orange County school

districts.

In the spring of 1959, he became the livestock superintendent of

the fair. He brought his high school Future Farmers of America group

to the fair, as did his wife with her 4-H kids. The couple led

youngsters in the task of breeding and marketing animals through

livestock competitions and auctions.

Becky Bailey-Findley raised and showed a lamb at the fair when she

was 10. She remembers waking up early in the morning to come to the

farm, feed and groom the animals and clean the pens.

“You were with friends and other 4-H’ers,” she said. “It was

almost like a working summer camp situation. A lot of camaraderie.”

She also showed, at the fair, a blouse and skirt she had sewn.

“To have it judged and displayed and to have it be publicly

recognized for something that you accomplished -- it was in the form

of a ribbon -- it wasn’t anything spectacular, but it was to me,” the

general manager said.

The one disadvantage about participating in a competition heavily

run by her dad was the fear that winning would seem unfair.

“Because of our name, it was always a ... it was almost better

that we didn’t win the top prize,” Bailey-Findley said. “So we didn’t

cause the appearance that there was any preferential treatment.”

Today, she doesn’t allow her children to show their livestock at

the Orange County Fair. They go, instead, to the Los Angeles County

Fair to avoid being “subject to gossip or talk.”

Bailey-Findley was also taught early on, as she teaches her

children now, to not use the Bailey name inappropriately -- to stay

on rides longer, to get into places, for example.

“Which is why they work here,” the parent said, referring to her

children. “They need to earn their privileges.”

Bailey-Findley first started working for her dad as a clerk in the

livestock department as a teen. Everything was done by hand back

then. The entry forms, the judging sheets -- everything was written

out or typed with a manual typewriter. Through her college years, she

continued to work seasonally in the livestock department. Once she

left her teaching career in 1982, she took on a year-round project at

the fair working with the Youth Expo program and continued working

summers with livestock.

“I had just become bitten, if you will, by the fair spirit and

being a part of producing the event,” Bailey-Findley said.

“Certainly, the relationships with the people were very positive for

me and it was also a part of my family.”

Bailey-Findley started working full-time in 1986, after she left

her teaching career and became exhibit supervisor of the fair. In

those days, the position was one of junior management and there

weren’t many full-time gigs around.

Three years later, her father retired from teaching at Fullerton

High School and devoted his time to starting and developing

Centennial Farm.

A year after that, Bailey-Findley became assistant manager at the

fair and, in 1994, she became general manager.

“I’m very much at home at the fair,” Bailey-Findley said.

Part of being at home means walking the grounds to make sure

everything is progressing as it should, when she’s not in her office

having to take care of the business side of all the fun.

Her favorite scenes on the fairground are those of people having

fun, the colorful and waving flags that flash her back to her

childhood and, of course, the carnival lights.

“Last night, as I left, it was already dark and the Grande Wheel

was lit up and it was the only carnival ride that was lit up and it

was absolutely gorgeous,” Bailey-Findley said.

THE WAY IT IS

The story goes that Cary Bailey-Findley started his relationship

with the fair when he was just three days old and underneath his

mom’s desk.

He’s been working for five years now as a paid fair employee. His

days involve carting around the grounds to take care of everything

and anything entertainment related, transporting the equipment

necessary for performances to happen and helping out with things that

aren’t technically his responsibilities at all.

His interest in the entertainment area of the fair first sparked

when he was 10 and became fascinated by a hypnotist who performed.

Cary Bailey-Findley got to know Fatland then and began go-fering

every summer just to help out.

“I do it every summer because it’s a part of my life,” he said.

“I’ve grown up with it and I like giving the experience to someone

else.”

Growing up with the fair, for all the Baileys involved in it, has

meant that summers are off limits for vacations and anything else.

Becky Bailey-Findley admits that for the weeks preceding and

during the fair, she is hardly accessible to her three kids and

husband.

“God forbid if one of my kids wanted to have a wedding in June,”

she said. “In June and July, our lives are committed to one cause.”

Helen Bailey added that the presence of the fair in the family has

become an un-argued mainstay.

“It was just an accepted thing really,” she said.

But one of aspect of the family’s tradition at the fair has

changed of late.

It is Jim Bailey’s first year not being in charge of Centennial

Farm. His titles and responsibilities were recently changed to

include heading up grounds maintenance and special projects including

landscaping. The idea is to make room to train others to run the

farm.

“I’m getting old,” he said. “We need a younger person to come in

and learn about Centennial Farm so they could keep it longer ‘cause I

can’t work forever.”

The farm is open to kids year-round, he added. More than 65,000

children came through last year to learn about raising livestock and

about agriculture.

“I think it’s an important thing for the 4-H and Future Farmers of

America kids to raise animals,” Jim Bailey said. “We provide a place

for that to happen.”

But he doesn’t mind that his duties have changed.

“It’s kind of an exciting thing,” Bailey said. “You never have a

chance to be bored, that’s for sure. It keeps you young, excited,

challenged. It’s just something to get up for in the morning.”

When asked why he finds it exciting, how he doesn’t get sick of

the life, he answered confidently.

“It gets in your blood,” Bailey said.

* YOUNG CHANG writes features. She may be reached at (949)

574-4268 or by e-mail at young.chang@latimes.com.