The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Bird is the word at Lorain County Fair
The Turkey Calling Competition was wedged in between a Rooster Crowing Competition and the Fowl Race.
Matthew Balas was sitting alone preparing to gobble like a turkey Aug. 25 in Barn 15 at the Lorain County Fair.
He’d come to the barn for one reason: to take part in the annual Turkey Calling Competition.
Now, Matthew, 14, of Amherst, sat there surrounded by the sounds, smell and feathers of the birds he had come to imitate.
The Turkey Calling Competition is just one of three events in the barn Aug. 25. It was wedged in between a Rooster Crowing Competition and the Fowl Race.
Zach Slimak, 17, vice chair of Fowl for the Junior Fair Board, explained what the three competitions entail.
“The Fowl Race is a small obstacle course that the kid is going to have to take their chicken, duck, turkey, goose; whatever they decided to bring,” Zach said. “The Rooster Crowing and Turkey Calling is more about the kids than the animal. The kids are expected to make their best rooster crow and their best turkey call.”
A Slimak panel of three judges, made up of Junior Fair Board members, grades the contestants on the quality of their calls and crows.
First place winners received a trophy, while second and third received ribbons.
Matthew wasn’t worried about the trophies, though. He didn’t plan to win, but he did have a strategy.
“You just make a highpitched squeaking noise,” he said. “Sometimes, if you can’t make the high-pitched squeaking noise, you just do a little gobble and they’ll go all in for that.”
Matthew is a true homegrown talent in the turkey calling game.
He said he got his start
calling the turkeys on his family’s farm. He said he believes he may have been attacked by one of the large, delicious birds when he was young, but it doesn’t stop him from competing.
“I want them to call back,” Matthew said. “But I’m pretty sure it’s for mating.”
When the competition began, Matthew was second in line to gobble.
He looked determined, staring straight ahead and holding the skin on his throat preparing to unleash the sound upon the world.
But alas, the sound seemed to catch in his throat. His eyes went wide and a sound somewhere between a screech and a chortle escaped. Matthew didn’t place. “I just didn’t do the voice good enough,” he said after the competition ended.
For the record, Matthew also was suffering from a scratchy throat the day of the competition.
He said he won’t let his showing at this year’s competition deter him ,and he’ll probably return to show his stuff in the future.