Hanford's Prize-Winning Babies
A Hanford toddler wins big at a Spokane fair, fueling local pride in the valley's future generation.
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This valley is noted for its numerous prizes won in Spokane fairs on vegetables and fruits, and when our babies go there and carry off prizes too, they should have as much praise, says Mrs. A. J. Summers, one of Hanford’s well known women. Helen Clark, 17 months old, who has lived most of her life with her mother and grandparents, while visiting in Spokane recently, won first prize, $15, for being the prettiest and cutest baby among 311. A peculiar circumstance is that 3 years ago, C. R. Holt’s six-month’s old boy, born on this same ranch, won second prize in a Better Baby contest while visiting in Spokane.
“When our babies go there and carry off prizes too, they should have as much praise.”
The 'Better Baby' contests of the early 20th century, though often tied to eugenics movements of the era, were also a way for rural families to express intense pride in their children and their community's vitality in regional competitions.
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