Today was Herr Meow’s first time riding a Merry-Go-Round.
Well, technically it wasn’t, but it was the first time that he got to sit on the horsey by himself, and that was big.
So, of course, I forgot my camera.
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County Fairs are lovely things, aren’t they?
They have shady characters and lots of sugar and greasy food but there is a quality of dated, still life that never quite goes away. The peeling paint and the rows of prizes stacked neatly and waiting to be taken home; the smell of hot dogs and the stickiness of cotton candy; the garish colors and the loud old-timey music; it all conspires to make you overeat, spend way too much on silly stuff, and feel giddy and happy and like a nine-year-old.
We went to the Arlington County Fair and we had a ball. I strongly suggest you find a fair close to you and do the same, because if more people got in touch with their inner nine-year-old, then we’d all realize how fun life can be.
And if it has fried dough –NOT funnel cakes, as funnel cakes are gross artifacts of the devil and all-around subpar (thank you, Miss JB for teaching me right!)– and pig races, you can consider yourself in heaven.
And well…. although to some a camera phone is not a camera, I did walk away with a memento of the day. Here it is:
Happy weekend, all!
A Daily Dose of Zen Sarcasm! 
AWWWWWW!
Born and bread in Upstate NY, county fairs are a staple of life. I miss the smell of the livestock, and all the exhibits of life in the 1600s when things really got their start in that neck of the woods. I likes me a good pig race, and a good tractor pull too. And, yes a bazillion rides (I still adore roller coasters) and all the food I care to sample. Your friend is absolutely correct about fried dough, BTW. Funnel cakes are inferior.
Oh how you take me back! I grew up in farming country in western PA, and nearly every week of the summer there was a fair of some sort to be found nearby.
My mother has pictures of my sister and I at 2 and 4, respectively, in the Pet Parade (part of the opening of our county fair) with our two Garfield-like kittens riding in a round laundry basket for which my mother (the seamstress of all seamstresses) fashioned a Big Top tent top (they, of course, were the tigers at the circus), complete with a flag on a pole. We won first prize that year, no doubt thanks to my mother’s ingenious imagination and sewing skills (and maybe just a tad due to how cute we and our kittens were back then.)
I remember my grandfather spoiling us rotten with anything and everything we wanted to eat, do and have to take home to remember the day.
This is something my kids miss out on here in Oklahoma, where it is TOO F-ING HOT for real life until mid-October. But they, unlike me, are city kids, so maybe they don’t really know what they’re missing, or will have other memories of childhood that mean as much, but are just different than mine.
I hope so.
Oooh, I do love the County Fair!
oh so cute! i love county fairs because they remind me of my childhood. even now (at nearly 30), i can’t resist the petting zoo. the boo allowed me to indulge my inner 9-y-o yesterday at the arlington county fair and we had a fun time. looks like you did too!