Meet Me At The Fair

  • by Trish Berg
  • August 27, 2013
  • 402
                        
Struggling with loads of laundry, clutter in the kitchen and chaos in your life? Stress can easily steal our joy. Trish Berg reminds us to simplify the small stuff and find Joy in the Journey. I’m not sure how many times I went to the county fair as a child, but probably not many. I did go to Disneyworld twice. Once when I was too young to remember anything, except by seeing the photographs of me in my red-plaid, bell bottom pants standing with my grandma Cipollone in her knee length sweater outside an eat stand munching on cotton candy. The other time was with my dad when I was about ten, and I remember riding Space Mountain and screaming my head off. But the county fair was not a big part of my childhood. When I did go, the county fair was more about riding the rides, eating the food, and trying my luck at the throw-the-dart-at-the-balloon game or squirt-water-in-the-clown’s-mouth. I never won any large stuffed animals, just the cursory “thanks for playing with us” prize, usually small enough to fit in the palm of my hand and hit the dumpster on a lucky throw on my walk to the car. But I did enjoy eating elephant ears, French fries with vinegar and the spinning ride where you stick to the sides of the wall when they drop the floor (but never in that order, for obvious reasons). Today, as a mom of 4Hers, the Wayne County Fair is a way of life for us, and this week, that is where I will be. I’m a citified-mom raising farm-kids, and my county fair experience has more to do with Heifers, market goats, show boxes, judges, and spending hours sitting in the beef barn visiting with family and friends. In fact, the Wayne county fair is more like a family reunion than a fair at all. Everybody in the county who is anybody at all will be there. We’ll all be strolling around the fairgrounds, meeting up with loved ones and long lost friends, catching up over fresh squeezed lemonade, a pork sandwich, and an apple dumpling for dessert. I always joke that it takes at least one hour to exit the Wayne County fairgrounds because you have to stop and talk to everyone you know on your way out the gate to the parking lot. Of course, every exit also must involve purchasing a couple of boxes of Lerch’s donuts, and their line is sometimes quite long. Though the city-girl in me is dreading stepping in the manure along the fairway and sneezing from the hay in the barns, the 4H mom I have become is looking forward to seeing the familiar faces who have become our fair-family. My kids are growing up in a different world than I did, and I’m just trying to keep up. Fair week is such a big deal around here, and my kids love living at the fairgrounds all week long. And whether they win a trophy in the show-ring or not, my hope is that they learn about enjoying life, and how to find the fun in the everyday. So meet me the fair, and win the biggest prize of all. Nope. It’s not stuffed, deep fried, frozen, or even tossed with vinegar and salt. It’s a tiny glimpse of joy and laughter, the way life was meant to be lived, with the people you love the most. And if you’re lucky, you might just be able to enjoy an elephant ear and lemonade.


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