At the 62nd annual Prince William County Fair, the event's past is its present and future. From carnival barkers to funnel cake, dairy goats to sarcastic clowns just begging for a dunk in the water.

A man by the name of Johnny came across one such heckler late on Monday, well after the sun set and the demolition derby ended.

The man in the Atlanta Braves baseball cap handed his daughter off to his friend Jennifer and approached the throwing line at the Drown the Clown station.

He had just watched a younger man peg a ball right on target on the right side (the clown's left), knocking the trash talker off his perch and into the drink below.

"Did you play baseball?" asked the heckler.

"No," Johnny replied.

"Oh, you played Barbie instead," burst out the clown to laughs, most of which were his own.

Every line ended the same, with a punch line and bellowing laugh directed his own jokes that faded out after a few pronounced chuckles.

The clown honed his sales pitch to perfecting, encouraging berated customers to express their desire to shut him up by shelling out a few bills in exchange for something to throw at the circular metal targets on each side of the dunking booth.

Inside, with white face paint and an all-blue ensemble, the clown would prop up one of his denim-covered legs and talk into the black dot suspended to the cage in front of him.

After a couple misses, and another dip into the wallet, Johnny wound up again. Right as the clown began his next verbal assault, Johnny reached back and smacked the bar with his hurl.

Down went the clown, up when the roars of approval from onlookers.

"I hate ‘em," said Johnny.

He mentioned that, in taking his daughter with him to the fair this year, "she's about tall enough where she can go on the good rides and just not quite tall enough to ride them alone. So I'm lucky enough to ride them with her."

Aiming and firing is a common theme at various booths all around the fairgrounds. Throw a ball into a jar and win a goldfish (and some of them last long too: the one this reporter won at the fair in 1996 just died this summer).

At Big Al's Safari hunt, mostly men lined took turns handling rustic guns, now with laser sites to help guide the pellets from the barrels that have never exactly been lined up to military precision.

For those preferring entertainment without machines providing the work, dairy goats with nubs for ears loudly greeted those entering a barn, often leaping up to the gates in front of them with a hoof extended to throw over someone's arm.

Joe Robinson from the Orange County, Va. chapter of the 4-H club explained that these goats were originally bred in Oregon are unique because of their lack of ear flaps.

The hardest thing about selling goats is "trying to convince people what they can use a goat for," said Robinson, every so often receiving a nudge from "Ivory" as the name on the tag around the goat’s necks indicated.

Practical uses range from milking to grass cutting as the goats are naturals at it.

Of course, one of the biggest attractions every year are the ferris wheels. Actually, make that anything people can enter and spin around for a ride.

All of Manassas can be seen from the top of the main ferris wheel, but for those not in the mood for either the line or the height, little ones could be seen queuing up for the Crazy Bus, which goes up just high enough for pint-size passengers to wave to their parents below.

"Lay lay!" happily exclaimed Joe Rose of Bristow as he waved to his daughter Alayla on the looping ride in the shape of a six-row bus.

"It’s kind of a traditional thing," added Patricia Brooks, standing next to Rose.

The county fair runs through this Saturday with different specialty events scheduled for each day. More information can be found at www.pwcfair.com.