FRIENDS LEND HELP TO FRIENDS AT BENTON

BENTON, Mo. -- During one point of Neighbor Days on Saturday afternoon, a decidedly larger crowd had gathered to eat hamburgers and barbecue at a Catholic church food stand than the United Methodist's stand set up in the city ballfields near old Benton High School.

It couldn't have been better hamburgers that brought them, said Gerry Stroup, who was helping the Methodists.

"If they run out of something, they'll come borrow from us, and we'll borrow from them, too," said Stroup, who has retired to Cape Girardeau after 51 years living in Benton. "That's what Neighbor Days is all about."

This year's two-day town festival marked the 32nd year of Neighbor Days, said Barry Urhahn, president of the Benton Chamber of Commerce.

The small town's annual gathering gave children and those who wanted to act like them chances to enter pie-eating contests, race after greased pigs and slither up a greased pole.

Although crowds were thin during the days on Friday and Saturday, about 3,000 attended in the evenings, Urhahn said.

"We normally have a lot more, but the heat has hurt us this year," Urhahn said.

About 3 p.m., the thermometer hanging in the chamber of commerce's booth said 101 degrees in the shade.

But hundreds of people were spinning on carnival rides, tossing horseshoes, or watching antique tractors in the afternoon sun.

Jody Haupt of Cape Girardeau rode his 1944 Massey Harris tractor in two weight classes for the tractor pulls on Saturday. The heat didn't hurt his performance, he said. It was the soft ground.

"I do a lot better on a hard surface," said Haupt, a farmer who took up antique pull competitions two years ago.

Haupt had been at the festival Friday night without his tractor. Since he and his wife attend Benton's Methodist church, he served fried fish, corndogs and hamburgers from 9 p.m. until midnight at the church food stand.

Methodists from Blodgett, Mo., even come to assist their sister church, said Donna Thompson of Benton.

"They will come up to help because they know we don't have enough people," Thompson said.

Thompson's parents helped, too. They contributed to an exhibit of locally grown fruits and vegetables in the old high school with a starfruit and two limes. Like Thompson's parents, the fruits came from Florida.

"They've had a house down there, and these fruits just grow on trees in the yard," Thompson said. "I thought it would be interesting to bring them here since a lot of people haven't seen them."

But the 7-pound sweet potato is a Benton product, Thompson said.

"I was playing cards with Melvin Hamm on a Wednesday night and he said he had these sweet potatoes," she said. "He said they are the biggest he has ever had."

A less unique occurrence was Mayor Joe Stuckey winning the egg toss with his son-in-law, Tim Linder, as partner. It was the third time in five years Stuckey has won.

This year Stuckey even dropped his egg once, but it didn't break.

To prove that he was not involved in egg-toss fixing, Stuckey threw the egg into the baseball infield after his win.

It broke.