Ag Fair

Quickly about the Windsor County Ag Fair....

1. Criss-crossed the thing looking for pony rides. No pony rides. Again. Third time in five years. I did talk to people with show horses and these bucking bronco types that were pulling harvesters or plows or whatever. No doubt they thought I was an idiot.

2. My Mom said, "There's a puppet show here." Emily and I scoffed. "We don't care about puppet shows." You guessed it, while we were eating lunch the puppet show started a little ways away. Jack was drawn to it like mosquitoes to an Ag Fair. I think he watched it with Emily for a good half hour; Kate watched some too. Nice for those of us who mostly cared about eating lunch.

3. There were two "rides," one a Ferris Wheel and one a car spinner thing. Jack was scared like nobody's business, especially when they wouldn't let adults ride with the kids. We finally convinced him to ride the spinner thing. I strapped him into the seat and he had a look of fear and misery on his face. Then it started, and I admit it went a little faster than I expected. Jack wailed. The guy stopped it and I lifted Jack out, and the other kids -- two little girls -- also wailed for their parents. I kind of don't blame Jack much. Later, walking by the Ferris Wheel (which went pretty high) I heard another boy wailing in terror. I might have smiled a bit. Note: there were no refunds on the ride tickets; I'd bought 10 and ended up giving most of them away on our way out of the Fair. I had been really close to buying 20 at the outset -- whew!

4. Later, bribed by a toy from Daddy's childhood toy shelf, a place of magic and wonder for Jack, a place of dusty, 30-year-old toys for me, I got him to do this big bouncy obstacle course with me. I think he was the youngest kid who did it -- you had to crawl through tunnels and climb up walls, it was sponsored by the National Guard or somesuch. He did great. As did I, since this one they let adults do. We raced, it was fun. And later Jack claimed his prize, some sort of little plastic turtle that I suspect he'll have lost by this time tomorrow.

5. Kate said "Cow?" at just about everything. Got to touch a kitty, too.