Don't be offended Slugmama! I LOVE you!
Slugmama from DON'T READ THIS, IT'S BORING! has never been to a county fair. Never enjoyed deep fat fried Oreos. Never browsed through the 4H projects building or sheep barn. Never watched local teachers milk cows for sport or watched a nervous kid try to herd a pig into a corral with a stick. (I'm assuming these things of course, correct me if I'm wrong...) But she had some questions about the 4H ribbons that the girls got over the weekend and she made me wonder if there was confusion elsewhere...
Not our ribbons - but you get the idea..Here is the chart that the kids and of course the judges use to translate these colored ribbons.
Purple rosette - best absolute BEST you can do! This project will go to State Fair and will make you famous! You are awesomeness personified!
Any Rosette - You are awesome! Top prizes go to you! Go make sure your folks take you out for ice cream on the way home!
Purple - Pretty dang good! Next best thing to going to the fair. All the hoopla without the food on a stick. You are exceptionally good at whatever category this project falls in.
Orange Dot - This means that your judge thought your project was better than Blue, but wanted all the other judges to check it out. Maybe it's Purple quality, State fair quality or maybe they just had dessert at lunch and were feeling pretty happy. Or perhaps their emotions weren't in full check because of dead pets...
Whichever the case may be, this project is under further consideration and will be reviewed by the rest of the judges at the end of the day to determine whether the afore mentioned judge was correct or should be fired. This ribbon may very well turn magically back into a blue or jump up to Purple or State ranking by the next day.
Blue - Still awesome! Next best thing to purple. You can say this is a Blue ribbon brownie and people ARE impressed. Trust me!
Red - Not as hot as a Blue... You're on the right track but need to do better!
White - Why on earth did you bring this to the fair? This project sucks!
Green - participatory. You participated. yay. Our club has the Cloverkid section, which means kids from kindergarten on up to 3rd grade. All Cloverkids get green for their projects. Meri did more than 20 projects a year since kindergarten. Her leaders LOVED her! In 4th grade you become an actual 4H full blooded member, like Meri is this year. THEN you get to start getting graded on your projects and critiqued. Meri was so looking forward to getting something other than a green and what was the ribbon she got for her dress? Green. But it was a rosette and had the words Top Award on it, so all is good!
And then of course, there's the dreaded "disqualified" category. You can basically just take this project of yours back home. What were you thinking? It doesn't belong here.
My son got that once... for this picture. Can you guess why? This isn't the actual picture... I couldn't find it. But it was very similar to this.
Granted, it WAS an awesome picture... In a 15 year old boys mind. And reminded him of our vacation that summer. We didn't drink any while we were there and he definitely didn't, but there were Guinness signs everywhere! Apparently it's good for you... At least that's what some of the signs said... and I'm gullible...
Well - the 4H judge thought they really shouldn't be advocating alcoholic beverage drinking amongst kids. I should have seen it and realized that, but you know me... I was in the 4H mad rush that week and it totally snuck past me.So anyway - I hope this clears up the ribbon questions for you all out there. Or reminded you of your old 4H days with fond remembrances of your white ribbons... Dig those puppies out and show them with pride!
10 comments:
I have been to the county fair a million times and I still had no idea what all the ribbons meant....even after entering something of my own to be judged!
that is incredibly complex -- if I got a white I'd just throw myself off the nearest bridge ;-) and the orange dot -- what up with that - either they like my work right away or not - sheeesh
Oh - I should explain a bit more. The orange dot is the ONLY way to get to a Purple or Purple rosette ribbon. To get to Purple, the project has to be looked at by all the judges.
See?!
I am NOT the only one who is confused!lol
And I have to been to a county fair. 8-P
But it was with small children and we basically looked at the animals or where eating or going on rides with them so not so much checking out projects and stuff or looking at ribbons.
What can I say? I was raised in the city and only got exposed to farm life sporadically on trips to distant relatives.
And feel free to throw me from the train anytime....as long as it's not moving...lol
Oh we live for the county fair around here. It is our ritual to go on Labor Day and to indulge in all manner of things to eat that are bad for you as we gaze at all the cow butts and pigs and chickens (my husbands personal favorite).
And thanks for visiting the blog and commenting!
Granted it's been over 30 years since I've been to the fair, but I never had ANY idea what the purple thingys meant. I just thought white was good, red was better and blue was the best. Oh well, I learn something new today.
So next weekend when I go to the county fair, I'll know what those dots are!!
Good job explaining.. Many people don't understand. We just finished shooting sports this week. No purples but the kids did well just the same. Now the kids are finishing their projects (woodworking mainly) before Labor Day weekend when our fair is. Hope you had a wonderful time.
While I obviously don't advocate drinking in kids, I wouldn't have found that photo offensive! That's crazy.
I went to a county fair YEARS ago and loved it. I didn't much care about the ribbons. I just loved looking at everything. Oh yeah and eating the food!
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