Fair time

I love fairs. They bring back memories of my childhood in a small (ca 4500 pop) town in southern Michigan - cows, goats, 4-H Club exhibits, canning and baking, &c, &c. And there's all that great food they sell, too - sausage, fried chicken, hamburgers, cotton candy.... We missed the local fair, in Ledyard, a few weeks ago. However, the Topsfield Fair, up in Topsfield, Mass - "America's Oldest Agricultural Fair" - started last night.

My older daughter's eleventh birthday is next week. Her best friend (whose father is an old shipmate of mine) moved up to northeastern Mass a few years ago, so last year we came up with the idea of visiting them as a birthday surprise. Drove on up Saturday morning, spent the afternoon at the fair, stayed at their place overnight, and came back Sunday. Worked out well, so this year we're going to repeat it. (The major difference will be that this time my daughter knows what's going on - last year all we said was that we were going "somewhere," with no mention of where or of who else would be there.)

Another difference, I hope, will be the weather. Last year it rained constantly, starting about the time we arrived at the fairgrounds, and we were doing a pretty good impression of semi-drowned rats as we ate our lunch inside the tent some thoughtful vendor had provided. So far, the forecasts say good weather for the weekend....