Fun at the Fair

       Tomorrow is the opening of the Northeast Florida Fair, held in Callahan, FL, (my fair city) and since I just moved to Callahan this year, aren't I lucky that I live right down the road? Yesterday morning I stopped by the fairgrounds to interview a gentleman about the rodeo that's going on next weekend. (More about that later.) The place was a flurry of activity as everyone was getting ready for the opening - putting out tables, decorating booths, and setting up midway rides. And although I won't be attending the fair this weekend because I'm going to a folk festival (more about that later) I will be sure to head over to the fair as soon as I get home.
       Last month I attended the Big E, which is a nickname for Eastern States Exposition, the largest fair of its kind held in New England. Springfield, MA, to be exact. I met my daughter, her hubby, and my grandaughter there, for part of our family vacation together. For my relatives, going to the fair is not about midway rides. In fact, we don't even venture to that section of the fairground, which is enormous, by the way. We are all about fair food, farm animals, and agricultural displays. At the Big E, there are huge buildings set up in a charming town square, each one designated for a state. The states proudly display their own specialties, with food and craft booths, and also informational kiosks. So if you go into the Vermont building you can eat maple cotton candy, watch a quilt being stitched together, and learn how to get rid of invasive insect species, all in one convenient location.
       Anyone who knows how I operate wouldn't dare get in the way of me and a piece of fried dough, and in New England, we eat fried dough with pizza sauce and cheese, rather than sugar, like they do in the South. And my fried dough at the Big E was delicious, as usual, washed down with a glass of freshly squeezed lemonade. But wait, there's more, as we spent the whole day at the fair, and appetites run big when you're pushing around a baby stroller for seven hours.

       We then moved onto corn dogs, that we bought at a local vendor just outside of the state buildings. These gems are all-beef hot dogs, hand-dipped in corn batter, not the frozen variety, and my son-in-law, Jason ordered one that was the size of a yard stick.  Later we tried the giant pickles from a real pickle barrel - these are naturally brined, unprocessed pickles with lots of garlic and vinegar. My daughter Avery's favorite, as you can see by the photo I took of her.
       While we were eating fair food, we strolled around the entire fair, which is why we go there in the first place, to see the 4-H projects, arts and crafts, fruits and vegetables, sheep-shearing, horse-showing, and more, including some great music that included an authentic steel drum band from New Hampshire. And by the end of the day, after our tummies were full of chocolate-covered bacon and homemade birch beer, we were happy that the fair comes around only once a year.
       Except in my case, twice a year. Look out Northeast Florida Fair, here I come.