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Tonight's performance isn't about winning for familiar vocalist

By MICHAEL KRUSE
Published April 28, 2007

SPRING HILL - Singing at the Hernando County Fair is nothing new for Tina Guarneri. The 43-year-old mother of three sang in the Nature Coast's American Idol competition in 2003, came in fourth in '04 and won it in '05, and last year she was a performer on the regular entertainment docket. She's scheduled to sing again tonight at 7 on the stage in the Alfred A. McKethan Civic Auditorium.

But this time is different.

"This will mean more, " she said this week here in her home.

Tonight's show comes at the end of a week that started scary.

The Guarneris moved to Hernando County from the Bronx, N.Y., 12 years ago. John and Tina have three kids - John Jr., 21, who graduated in 2004 from Springstead High School; Jesse, 13, who's in seventh grade at Fox Chapel Middle; and Jasmine, 9, who's a fourth-grader at Spring Hill Elementary.

John Jr. did four years of ROTC at Springstead. Last August, he enlisted in the Army, in Brooksville, at the recruitment office on the truck route behind the Applebee's.

He did basic training at Fort Sill, Okla., and advanced training at Fort Bliss, Texas, and Airborne school at Fort Benning, Ga.

He was married on New Year's Eve to high school sweetheart Amanda Sargent at the Flower House on Forest Oaks Boulevard.

Then he was stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C., as a member of the acclaimed 82nd Airborne.

Then he was sent to Iraq.

Then came Monday.

It was around 8:30 a.m. Tina turned on the TV. The news was on Good Morning America.

Nine dead and at least 20 hurt in a double dump truck suicide bomb attack at a base near Baghdad.

Paratroopers.

From the 82nd.

Out of Fort Bragg.

It was one of the worst single-event losses of life in more than four years of war and the deadliest attack on the 82nd since Vietnam.

Back here in Hernando, Tina grabbed her cell phone, got in her car, called her husband, cried and told him what was going on as she drove to a girlfriend's house.

"I was scared to go back home, " she said. "I was afraid someone was going to come knock on the door."

She finally got back in her car to drive home. That's when her phone rang.

"I heard his voice, and I can't - it was like I could breathe, " she said.

The rest of this past week as she's practiced for her performance, she's kept her phone clipped to her and set on vibrate so even with the loud music she wouldn't miss his calls.

Tonight, she will sing, among other songs, the Romantics' What I Like About You. She will sing Carrie Underwood's Jesus Take the Wheel. She will sing Bring Me to Life by Evanescence.

And she will sing, for her son, a song by Mariah Carey.

She will sing Hero.

Michael Kruse can be reached at mkruse@sptimes.com or 352 848-1434.

If you go

County Fair Youth and Livestock Show

When: Daily through Sunday.

Where: Hernando County Fairgrounds, 6436 Broad St., on the south side of Brooksville.

Parking: $2 per carload. Enter on Oliver Street from U.S. 41 and park on the north side of the grounds. Once those spots are filled, parking will be across U.S. 41, and sheriff's deputies will provide escorts across the highway.

Admission: $5 for adults; $3 for kids 4-12; free for kids 3 and under.

Information: 796-4552 or www.hernandocounty fair.org

TODAY'S SCHEDULE

1-11 p.m. Midway open ($18 unlimited ride armband)

1-8 p.m. Baby animal barn

1:30 p.m. Dance contest, Auditorium

3 p.m. Livestock auction

Egg roll-eating contest, Outside Stage

7 p.m. Demolition Derby, Rodeo Arena ($12 adults, $5 kids 4-12, 3 and younger free; includes fair admission)

Pie-eating contest, outside stage

Entertainment revue, two shows

Comedy bird safari, three shows

AT THE FAIR

One of the rising young talents in the fair industry lives in Hernando County. Andy Deggeller, third-generation Deggeller Attractions, lives out on Old Trilby Road east of Brooksville, even though the company is based in South Florida. He's just 27, he studied business at the University of Richmond, he's intelligent and articulate - and he wants to stay in the family biz.

The carnival.

The old-timey traveling carnival in our oversaturated information age.

Next stop after this week: North Carolina. And after that: Virginia.

Why?

1. "There's not a day that I see the same thing twice. It's exciting."

2. "I grew up out here. My little sister grew up out here."

3. "I'm proud of what my family has built. I don't want it to end with my father. I decided I wanted to be a part of it."

[Last modified April 27, 2007, 22:33:45]