August brings memories of the County Fair!

The fair used to mean Grandma would enter the quilt she worked on all winter.
Aunt Grace would enter a Zinnia from her garden.
There would be displays of baked breads, cakes and cookies.
Mother might enter a pie or her best pickles.
The young children entered animals they had created using vegetables of various shapes.
Grandpa attending the horse races and Dad at the tractor pulls.
4-H clubs exhibited signs,and children and animals were everywhere!
There was the poultry barn and barns with goats and sheep and pigs; and barns with rows of bunny cages.
The show ring where horseback riders, dressed in attractive clothing and boots, competed for best of show or barrel racing,

Cattle were lead one at a time around a ring, their coats brushed to a shine and their hooves trimmed and waxed, as judges nodded or not.

There were dogs paraded for show and herding exhibitions for working dogs

Behind the barns children washed their animals with water hoses and buckets and they wiped them try combing their animals coats into wavy patterns. The pens were piled with yellow straw, where some children might unroll a sleeping mat and could be found sleeping near their animal. It was precious time; it was fair time and at the close of the fair, the auction with exhibitors holding blue ribbons and struggling to hold back tears.

There was a certain amount of envy between the exhibitors who would return home with their animal and others who would not. It was all part of farming.

It’s time for merry-go-round rides, Ferris wheel circles into the sky, bumper cars, tilt-a-wheel rides and rides that zoom and twist and twirl.
For cotton candy, slushes, elephant ears and pretzels with mustard.
A visit to the pie tent to have a fresh piece of homemade pie, or the strawberry tent and have a short cake. To visit the food trucks where they offer hot dogs, brats, and kraut or barbeque pork sandwiches and fries. Ice cream sundaes, sodas and twists.
Tables with watermelon slices on plates where kids spit seeds at each other and laugh.

A walk through the Arcade, where laughter prevailed as the vendor taunts a player to; throw the ball at the bottles, shoot the gun at a target or hit the scale with a mallet, all in the hope of winning a stuffed animal. A large scale where people pay to let the man guess their weight!

There’s dust and animals, kids and old folks, preachers and carnies, choir members and lodge folks. Once a year they gather together to laugh, eats unhealthy food and enjoy the fair.

May your day land Jelly-Side-Up
Nelle