For 50 years, Patsy Rowland has helped welcome fairgoers to the N.C. State Fair. In all that time, she’s seen the fair evolve and learned a thing or two about what it takes to keep the gates moving.
Rowland started working at the fair in 1976 as a ticket taker at Gate 11. She was 35 years old. Back then, there were no online ticket purchases, and tickets were sold off of a roll. Once people bought their tickets at a booth, Rowland took those tickets as they entered.
“Then, once I retired from my federal job, which was as a letter carrier, I started in sales in 2003,” Rowland said. “So I’ve been selling tickets ever since.”
Her start in ticket sales in 2003, began with working in the advance sales booth at Gate 9. Then at the beginning of the fair, she would move to the ticket booth at Gate 11 along Blue Ridge Road near Hillsborough Street. Her 50 years at the fair have included plenty of changes, but some of her favorite memories come from her 44 years at Gate 11, where the crowds could be something to behold.
“There were times when we were extremely busy,” she said. “We had lines all the way down to Hillsborough Street, and there were four of us selling tickets as hard as we could sell.”
It’s a scene that longtime fairgoers might remember – a line stretching toward the street, crowds eager to get through the gate and ticket sellers working as quickly as possible to keep things moving.
Gate 11 did not reopen after the 2019 N.C. State Fair. After the fair was canceled in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, construction along Blue Ridge Road near Hillsborough Street led to the gate’s elimination before the 2021 fair. So since then, after her annual stint selling advance tickets at Gate 9, Rowland has moved to Gate 10 during the fair. When advance sales wrap up, she closes down at Gate 9 on Thursday night and moves to Gate 10 on Friday morning to start selling tickets.
Now 85 years old, she’s seen plenty of changes over the years, but Rowland describes the fair’s evolution as gradual rather than dramatic.
“Nothing too big all at one time,” she said.
Good people keep her coming back
After five decades, Rowland said it’s good people and good times that keep her returning to the fair each October.
“I enjoy working with the ladies I work with, plus I enjoy the public,” she said. “Maybe once in a while it gets aggravating, but overall, I enjoy it.”
She named Becky Swanson as one of her favorite coworkers but added that she has been fortunate to have many different good coworkers throughout her time at the fair. That appreciation for people goes back to her other career, too. Before retiring from the U.S. Postal Service, Rowland carried mail in Raleigh, building relationships with customers along her route.
“I enjoyed carrying mail, too, because I had some good customers,” she said. “When Christmas time came around, I’d open a box, and there’d be a Christmas present or a bag of cookies, or candy. You know, I had good times with the Postal Service, too.”
For Rowland, those memories share a common thread. It’s the people who make a job worthwhile.
A North Carolina upbringing
Rowland grew up in Fuquay-Varina and was raised in the Needmore community, where her father farmed tobacco. She continued living in the community after she married before beginning her career with the Postal Service in Raleigh.
Today, she still lives in Fuquay-Varina. Of the seven children in her family, she is one of three still living. She has a twin sister who lives in Garner and a brother who lives in Chesterfield, Virginia.
At the fair, she has found a seasonal routine that she hopes to continue for as long as her health allows. Even after 50 years, Rowland isn’t ready to call it quits even at age 85.
“I wouldn’t keep doing it if I didn’t enjoy it,” she said. “And, like I said, if my health holds out, I’d like to do it again next year.”
After half a century of helping fairgoers get through the gates, Rowland is already looking forward to another year.