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Retired veterans' service officer stays on at Legion fair

Five O'Clock Shadow

By Charles Deal | Special to the Record

Published: September 13, 2009

When he retired recently after 35 years as veterans' service officer — serving Catawba and six nearby counties — Steve Mains admits leaving a job he loved and worked at passionately. It's a rare veteran, he says, who has the slightest idea of after-service rights.

"I never left the office without wondering if I left any bumps behind that needed to be covered."

A great deal changed in that 3-1/2-decade period. GIs who served in World War II or Korea sometimes fought off "shell shock." Vietnam changed that, he said. The Nam veteran sometimes had to deal with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, popularly called PTSD.

One thing that didn't change, said Mains, was the slow bureaucracy involved in getting a decision or help for a veteran in need.

Appointing a service officer to cabinet level in presidential administrations was designed to help, but fell short of expectations, he said, making another reference to bureaucracy.

One Veterans' Service case involved a WWII veteran who was dying of lung cancer. A day or so before his death, the veteran was finally classified as 100 percent disabled.

This is not going to help me, the man told Mains, requesting that the service officer do his best to get his two children a college education.

The outcome was one Mains will never forget. Both siblings were afforded college educations, married and had children and enjoyed successful lives.

In 1984, Mains made a decision that would ultimately become a second career. He joined American Legion Post 48 and became involved in the annual county fair, helping plan entertainment for the annual event.

Now president and manager of the fair, Mains says it's the best non-paying job he ever had. All Legionnaires involved with the fair are volunteers. His early years of part-time labor have resulted in his being voted president of the North Carolina Association of Agriculture Fairs.

In its long history, only one other Hickory resident has been the state fair president. That was the late Corbin Green in 1957-58.

Mains joined the fair staff on a full-time basis at the best time. This year's fair was one of the most successful in years. The two-inch rain on opening night quickly dissipated, and the best of times followed.

Profits from the fairs are invested by Legionnaires in American Legion Baseball, N.C. State Veteran's Nursing Home, the Ladies Auxiliary, and a Legion-sponsored Boy Scout troop.

Lining up some promising beginners who rose to superstar country music stature has given the fair new sparkle, says Mains. Some of the young musicians who made it big include Tim McGraw, Sugarland, Kenny Chesney and Trace Atkins.

Exile played the main stage in 1985, the year the band had three top-10 songs.

When will planning for the 2010 fair begin? "The day we clear out these buildings," said Mains.

Looking ahead, he expects the biggest fair ever in four years. That's when the county fair, among the state's oldest, observes its 100th birthday.

The fair was started in 1913 by a group of Hickory business people. When the Doughboys of World War I returned home, a decision was made to buy rights to the fair, the actual date unknown.

The county fair was dark for two years during World War II.

A huge aerial photograph hanging in the fair office shows the original fairgrounds site, where it all began.

That land is now occupied by Hickory High School.

Charles Deal is a former newspaper publisher and editor. Reach him at chazdeal@aol.com.