Elisha R. Smith, 88, can remember going to the fair with his grandfather, George Smith, who was really his uncle. “But I always called him grandfather,” Mr. Smith said, seated in the shade of his Oak Bluffs farm on Saturday. The senior statesman among Island farmers, Mr. Smith has many fond memories of fair days, which were a festive time and a time to take a break, at least for a few hours, from the daily chores of milking cows, collecting eggs and delivering milk to families in Vineyard Haven and Oak Bluffs.

“There were quite a few farmers on the Island in those days,” Mr. Smith said. “I was raised by my grandfather . . . and my grandfather was in charge at the fair.”

Years later, Elisha Smith would become the president of the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society and be the man in charge of the fair himself.

But the early memories of going with his grandfather to the fair have stayed with him through the years. On the days of the fair, the young Mr. Smith would join his grandfather and get the chores done at the Oak Bluffs home and farm. “Then we’d ride up to the fair in my grandfather’s old black Model T,” he said.

He recalled watching his grandfather sit on a bench in the shade in front of the Grange hall, the original site of the fair. He’d be sitting with the other farmers, telling stories. “They would shoot the bull,” he said.

He recalled that his grandfather was good at throwing horseshoes. The games were spirited, the competition intense. “Quite a lot of them would do it. I didn’t do it. I was too small,” Mr. Smith said.

“Some of the fair was fun. Some of it was serious,” he added.