By Staff
FAIR FRIENDS Jean Myer, left, offers her friend Sarah McKay a cookie while the two chat on the front porch of McKay's cabin at the Neshoba County Fair. Photo by Anna Wright/The Meridian Star
By Penny Randall / staff writer
July 30, 2003
Sarah McKay of Philadelphia has hosted Sunday dinner at her Neshoba County Fair cabin for 30 years.
She usually feeds upwards of 30 people.
The 114th Neshoba County Fair holds many traditions for the more than 600 families who own cabins at the fairgrounds.
The fair has grown from a two-day meeting of local farmers and their families who brought homegrown vegetables and canned foods to sell to an eight-day event also known as "Mississippi's Giant House Party."
Sunday meal
Many of those traditions include food, especially for McKay, whose Sunday meal is a ritual and always features banana pudding and chicken pie.
She does something special for every meal even breakfast which includes cheese grits, scrambled eggs, biscuits, sausage, bacon and fresh juice.
On the other side of the fairgrounds is cabin No. 18 the Cole family's cabin one of the original fair cabins that surrounds Founders Square.
Casseroles
Cole's secret to feeding a large family is casseroles.
Cole said there's always watermelon and homemade ice cream at her cabin.
Compared to McKay and Cole, Karen Hamilton is a beginner at the Neshoba County Fair. She and her husband, Fred, have owned a cabin for only five years.