Car show, vendor market close out 4-day Kendall County Fair

Montgomery resident Jim White was beaming with happiness after his 1962 Chevrolet Impala received the top prize – Fairest of the Kendall County Fair – during the Aug. 4 auto show at the Kendall County Fair.

Thanks to White, the car keeps on humming.

“The car has pretty much been rebuilt, including being repainted and being given a new interior, new motor and new transmission,” he said. “It is put together to drive. It does not just sit in the garage and collect dust. I take it on short cruises and I’ll take it on long cruises.”

The auto show helped close out the four-day Kendall County Fair. Pat Briscoe, 79, of Joliet entered his red 1960 Pontiac Catalina in the show. He spent almost three years restoring it.

“It was sitting in storage for 24 years, and I bought it,” he said. “It was at an estate sale. I went to the auction and was the high bidder.”

Briscoe likes his car for many reasons.

“I like the body style, I like the color of it and I like the motor,” he said. “I like the way it rides. It’s a good car.”

He also likes the fact that it can get up to 120 mph, although he has never driven that fast.

“I did go 100 mph in it,” Briscoe said.

Alongside the car show, there was a vendor market. Among the vendors was Oswego resident Kelsey Coulter, founder and owner of Art Of The Game, which sells homemade clothing and crafts.

T-shirts, stainless steel tumblers and charcuterie boards are among the items for sale.

“I’ve done spirit wear for local sports teams and different things like that,” Coulter said.

Coulter is a 2010 Batavia High School graduate and is a girls basketball coach at Benet Academy in Lisle.

Truck and tractor pulls, a western horse speed show and 4-H exhibits also were part of the fair.

The Kendall County Fair opened Aug. 1 on a high note for Yorkville High School student Madilyn Adams, whose Golden Laced Wyandotte chicken won a grand champion ribbon.

While her chickens have won several ribbons at the fair over the years, this is the first time one of them has received a grand champion ribbon. She raises her chickens at her house in Yorkville.

“They are really pretty, and it’s fun to come to the fair and show them,” said Adams, who is a member of the Rockin KC’s 4-H Club.

She also prefers the eggs her chickens provide versus store-bought eggs.

“They taste different,” Adams said. “They taste fresh.”

Plano High School student Kiley Tchebotarev, a member of the Stagecoach Trailblazers 4-H Club, raises rabbits, something that runs in the family. Her mother and grandmother also raised rabbits.

“My grandma gave me two bunnies as a birthday gift when I was about 5 years old,” Tchebotarev said.

Her rabbits have taken home best of show in the past. They are judged on such things as the shape of their heads and being well proportioned, she said.

Tchebotarev said she enjoys raising rabbits.

“It’s something that I feel like I can put my time into. I have a few rabbits that are too skinny but have amazing qualities overall. And so I like working with them.”

For the first time, Tchebotarev will enter her rabbits in the Illinois State Fair later this month.