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Bring on the Candy Apples and Chili Sauce
Did you get out to The County Fair? LOML and I dodged the rain and headed out after lunch on Saturday. If you know me, and let’s face it you don’t, these days I have to be convinced to go out to do just about anything in public. The thing is, I spent a lot of my working life with, and in, the public. Mostly it was great but there were moments when I wondered why I’d leave the back-forty to mingle with others. Sometimes it’s just too people-y out there for me. BUT, we did go to The Fair and had no regrets. For us, it isn’t about the Midway Rides and Games, it’s all about the fruit, the vegetables, the home crafts, the art show, the animals and seeing people we haven’t seen since the Santa Claus Parade last winter. This year The Fair did not disappoint. We chatted with lots of old friends, saw lots of great things and sniffed some pretty “country style” sniffs.
When I was a kid we went to The Ex. While not exactly the country fair of bygone days, it was fun and, seriously, who didn’t love the Food Building and the Modern Living Centre!? But the star fair of my career as a kid was The Royal Winter Fair. And, oh how I loved everything about The Royal. The first time I went to The Royal Winter Fair was on a school trip in grade four. Weezy and I were “partners”. We were supposed to hold hands “all of the time” at The Fair. I remember giggling at the washroom break because, well you get the idea. Of course, we didn’t hold hands in the loo. We were supposed hold hands and stay with the rest of the class and maybe Weezy and I sorta/kinda did but those bunnies were so darned cute. I don’t remember if there were chaperones on the trip but there may have been. I do know we were very fortunate to have had one of those teachers who believed in hands-on experiences to follow-up on “sit-in-yourseat- and-listen” lessons. That year there were lots of adventure trips throughout the year. On The Royal Winter Fair day we piled into a Grey Coach bus and set out for downtown Toronto on a fall day in November. The trip downtown was ho hum for me because I was born “downtown” and all of our extended family still lived there. Many of the kids in our class, however, had never been away from Humberlea and there might have been a few upset bellies and some tears. At the fair I was awestruck by the produce, the products, the animals, the demonstrations, the smells, the tastes and the whole adventure of being able to watch farmers celebrate. Our teacher was from a farming family in Maple and seemed to know a few of the people in the livestock area! When LOML and I moved to The County one of our new friends mentioned The County Fair and I’m sure we went when the kids were little but my mind was stuck in neutral. How could a County Fair be The Royal Winter Fair. And then?
Well, and then after years of living in The County LOML and I decided it would be neat to go The Royal Winter Fair. I was still caught up in the romance of what it meant to me when I was an elementary school kid holding my best friend’s hand as we navigated the livestock and produce areas. But, The Royal just wasn’t the same anymore, at least in my eyes. Oh ya, the livestock was there. The produce was there but there was a great big market area filled with things for sale like cookware, foot massagers, exotic spices and herbs, batches of supposedly handmade soaps and lotions, mops and buckets, clothing you would never wear to the barn and accessories from far away places along with a dizzying array of international food vendors. It just didn’t feel the same to me. It wasn’t neighbourly anymore. The bunnies were still cute, though. It was during that very last visit to The Royal Winter Fair I decided I really did love a good fair but it had to be neighbourly, local, fun and close by.
Am I thinking about going to The Royal Winter Fair? Yes. Yes, I am. Will I go to The Royal Winter Fair? Nope but I will go to The Milford Fair! Who doesn’t love good Chilli Sauce competition or a lawn tractor pull or picking up a jar or two of preserves from a person you might meet at the Post Office or chatting with all of the folks from the “hood”. Wind, weather and weekend visitors permitting, we’ll be heading out to Milford on Saturday. See you there!
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