I love a good country fair. The two I know best are the Cornish Fair, which is this weekend, and the Tunbridge World’s Fair which happens the second weekend in September.
They both combine agricultural displays with family entertainment .
I love the soft brown languid eyes of milk cows lounging in their open sheds, as young 4-H-ers in big black rubber boots wash and brush their bovine friends, talking to them, and promising them blue ribbons.
The sheep, when shorn, are as fuzzy as teddy bears . And it’s okay to touch them. The children who bring them are happy to have you admire, touch and talk to their pets.
In contrast to the soft and gentle sheep are the oxen. At the Cornish Fair, the ox pull goes on all day Saturday, starting with the smaller, younger oxen. Some people have reservations about this event, but the animals seem well-treated to me. By evening, the biggest oxen – some weighing more than my little red Toyota – draw a huge crowd, most of whom bring their own folding chairs to sit and watch the oxen drag sleds laden with heavy concrete slabs.
The goal of the Jack and Jill Sawing event is to determine which male-female pair can cut through a 16 inch chunk of soft pine the quickest - with a 2-person crosscut saw. The saws go through the wood like the proverbial hot knife through butter.
The best part of the ax-throwing competition is when someone hits a bulls-eye. The eye of the wooden target has been hollowed out to fit a can of soda. Whack! A bulls-eye explodes with grape soda going everywhere. The crowd roars, and kids open their mouths in hopes of catching a drop.
In the tree-cutting competition, logs resembling telephone poles are set vertically in a line, and competitors try to cut them down with axes. A peg is set 15 feet or so from each tree so that if the competitor is very, very good, the peg is driven into the ground when the log falls.
The school gymnasium is full of handiwork, 4-H exhibits, lovely hand-made quilts, delectable baked goods, jars of jam and pickles, and chocolate cakes with maple frosting.
For many years I’ve worked in the vegetable division. I love being in the gym on Thursday night before the fair when families and children come in with their vegetable entries. For the “best humorous vegetable” category kids will take a squash or a pumpkin and add facial features to invite giggles. And each will win a ribbon, at least a third place, and a small cash award.
Once at the Tunbridge Fair I noticed that they had a scarecrow division - but the Cornish Fair didn’t. So I suggested scarecrows to Cornish, and now every year there’s a line-up of scarecrows on the stage in the gym - from rakish to scary.
And last, but not least, there’s the midway with junk food and rides for kids and even a Merry-go-Round. A highpoint of my year is riding it with my grandchildren. I can’t wait.
