Friends, Relatives and a Fair

Wednesday, 9/15 - Sunday, 9/19

Time flies when one is having fun. Maintaining this blog has become more difficult than maintaining my sanity.  Story telling with sister Lynn and brother-in-law Jack; dining at a favorite downtown restaurant, aptly named “Back Home Again Cafe”; visiting friends and old neighbors dating back to the mid-last century(!!!) … what a treat.  And to experience all this in one of Mother Nature’s best times of the year: Autumn in New England. The world renowned changing of the foliage colors has begun in pockets of the surrounding forest, an indication that our next 4 weeks in these six northeastern states should be extra special.

Back home in Vermont, next door to my sister's.

Hay bale decorating.  Somewhere, there are hungry cows, but here we have a symbol of a Vermont moose (the one with the horns).

A parade of prize hogs and little kids makes for a fun fair.

At 1 1/2 tons, this ox is actually larger than I am, but not as friendly.  Doris didn't know that when she found his hide to be very silky to the touch.

Another “special” is the Tunbridge World Fair. Saturday found Lynn, Jack, Doris and me enjoying a drive through the mountains, viewing the unusual creations of decorated hay bales, a recent development expressing the joy of playing in the cool, clear autumn days. What a kick! But, our destination was the tiny town of Tunbridge, VT and its questionably renowned “World Fair”. When I was a kid, this fair celebrated the nearing end of the summer farm labors. The story still is that if you were to attend, you had to have a whiskey bottle in your pocket and another man’s wife on your arm. Whooeee! No wonder I never got to go until I reached my present age of greater maturity… Times have changed and the old requirement is no longer valid. I’m happy about that because the only other “wife” in our group of four was my sister. EEWWWW!!

We had a great time, enjoying the displays of farming equipment and demonstrations of their use; the piggies, cows, goats, sheep; 1 ½ ton oxen; pig races; parades; prize vegetables; carnival junk food; and the zillions of people who found their way down narrow highways to enjoy the fair on a perfectly clear and sunny day. With the so-close-you-could-almost-touch-mountains as a backdrop, there’s no more authentic fair in the country. I wish you could have been there too.

Sunday was a day spent with special friends Steve & Sharon, then home to paperwork and more time with family. Tomorrow, we move.

Childhood friend Steve with his surprise birthday present, a '50 Plymouth, from his wife.  What a woman!