Three Beautiful Things about the Fair

If you read my posts last week, you read about our day at the Skagit County Fair. It is a small fair - the fairgrounds are practically right in downtown Mt. Vernon. But they had everything that's necessary for a fair - the carnival - the rides, the food booths with their enticing smells - the steer that is as big as out kitchen... (Sorry to say, we missed Valentine's Performing Pigs ) but I took my spinning wheel and created quite a stir of my own in the sheep barn.

I grew up going to the North Central Washington Fair in Waterville. There were certain things you "had to do" at the fair - one was go to the Lions Club barn for the best hot beef sandwich you'd ever had - the floor was covered in sawdust, giving it an "outdoorsy" smell. The whole family would go together, and daddy would always find a cousin or two to sit with (who were those people, anyhow?) As I got older, I participated in the 4-H events - baking pies, cookies and preparing a whole meal for a panel of judges. My ace in the hole was beef stroganoff (still a favorite dish to prepare to this day). I also did sewing and clothing activities - even went to "State Fair" in Puyallup one year! I learned a lot from my 4-H activities, as well as the many friends I made.

So my TBT's about the fair are:

• The corn dog that The Shepherd brought me for lunch - the crust was crispy and he put lots of yellow mustard on it!


• Watching the faces of the children as they came through the barn with their moms and dads - sneaking a little pet on a sheep here and there -

• The happy memories that the sights, sounds and smells brought to mind.