For four short days every year, when I was a teenager, I became part of something bigger. It was bigger than me when I was 15. It is bigger than me today, at 47. Eastern States Exposition. New England’s premier agricultural fair. Every year, our state (New Hampshire), along with the five other New England states, sent a delegation of 4-H youth and their dairy cows down to…
It’s time for the fair! Once this hits your inbox, we will already be moving the cows in, shaking the flakes of hay out, and raking the alleyway for herdsmanship. Below is a piece I wrote years ago. It was prompted because one of the FFA leaders was looking for a garden gnome to complete their display at the fair. The request gave me pause to think and recollect…
It sneaks in every year, right after our own county fair in New York. The Hopkinton State Fair—the fair where I grew up, every Labor Day weekend, in New Hampshire. It is the backdrop of where I showed my cows, went to the tractor pulls and fell in love with all of my 4-H friends year after year. The reigns have been turned over to my nieces, nephews,…
And it’s a wrap! To be honest I have a love/hate relationship with the fair—as I am sure many mothers do. We can’t help it. The fair consumes our lives the week before, the week of, and the week after. When you break it down it is a week that goes like this: It’s dealing with very tired, dirty children for the 7-day duration, turning the show clothes…
0
