I’m the same girl and not the same...Folks keep growing from one person into another all their lives, and life is just a lot of everyday adventures. Well, whatever life is, I like it.
from Caddie Woodlawn
written by Carol Ryrie Brink
illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman
Macmillan, [1973]
originally published by Macmillan, 1935
Newbery Award Winner, 1936
Every year since 1846 (except 2020 when it was closed for COVID-19), our county holds its Fair for a long (6-day) Labor Day weekend, and our little city is host.
While I acknowledge all the people in our USA (including my husband and me) who work hard to produce, serve, and entertain, and even though I'm working and I've asked others to work, too, my focus is on the labor, not the day off.
Since we live so close to the Fairgrounds, we use our lawn for private parking. Each year, we hire several kids to help. For most of them, it’s their first job.
But the Fair is not all work and no play for my husband and me. If our very grown-up kids come in with our growing grandchildren, we can get away for a little while to experience the sights, sounds, and smells for ourselves. (Although the barn smells and cooking smells waft over when the wind blows just right!)
Like all county fairs, ours shows all kinds of farm animals. I could stand in the rooster building all day (if I didn’t have anything else to do) and just listen. A crowing rooster has such a unique sound and a unique message. Wake up! Literally and figuratively is a command I need to hear daily.
Farm equipment, large and small, is on display. Tractors whose tires stand taller than I do, perform all kinds of work from tilling a field to harvesting it.
And produce. A whole building is filled with apples. Corn, hay, and local honey fill another. Pumpkins and gourds are arranged like art.
Flowers, photography, and fine art are yours for the viewing.
But the Fair is interactive, too. You can dress a cow and milk one. You can judge the rooster crowing contest.
You can enter handmade anything from brownies and jam to hand-knit afghans and sweaters and freshly carded wool. From ceramics and pottery to quilts, photographs, and fine art. All are judged for ribbons and recognition.
Dress a gourd in the year’s theme. You could walk away with a ribbon there, too.
One year, I entered my pumpkin muffins. It was the cream cheese frosting, I realized years later, that disqualified them. It does not hold up very well in 80+ degree weather in a hot building for six days.
I have a competitive streak and a desire to prove that I can bake, even though some people say I’m not a very good cook. After the pumpkin muffin fiasco, I was determined to do everything correctly and bring home a beautiful blue ribbon. I decided to enter my challah recipe. It’s an egg-based, braided yeast bread that’s served each Sabbath in traditional Jewish homes.
My recipe book says it’s a prize-winning challah, and with one more week to go, the braid needed more practice than the recipe. But, ribbon or not, I would end up with a freezer full of delicious challah. I’d call that a win!
On the first day of the Fair, I went by myself to look for that big, blue ribbon sitting on my golden challah that reminds me of my gram’s silver old-lady-braid and my own chestnut young-girl-braid. I did not find that blue ribbon, but I was pretty ecstatic to find a smallish, shimmery, white honorable mention ribbon adorning my loaf.
You can play games on the midway, too, and bring home a giant stuffie or a live goldfish (or not). You can eat your way from one end of its 353 acres to the other. Anything that can be fried and/or stuck on a stick will probably be for sale.
Entertainment has included The Lennon Sisters in 1956, and each year since 1968, the Fair has been host to a diversity of acts including Bob Hope, The Monkees, Weird Al, and the Pentatonics. This year, besides the Tractor Pull and the Demolition Derby, Brad Paisley is coming, and so is Lynyrd Skynyrd. If the loudspeakers are aimed correctly and the wind cooperates and I’m standing (or sitting) in the right place, I’ll hear some of it.
And that’s not even the best part.
Each year, my husband and I hire several smart, creative, and high-energy teenagers. This year was no different. They mostly reported for work on time, stayed focused, and worked well together.
I hope they also learned responsibility, time management, and self-respect. I know they had fun. I did, too!
I have every confidence that the world will be in good hands when these kids are in charge.
I hope your Labor Day is the start of a great and productive week!
No book this week, too busy with grandkids, cars, and the first phase of cleanup, but my next one is One Jar of Magic by Corey Ann Haydu (Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollinsPublishers, 2021).
-—Be curious! (and productive)
from Caddie Woodlawn
written by Carol Ryrie Brink
illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman
Macmillan, [1973]
originally published by Macmillan, 1935
Newbery Award Winner, 1936
Every year since 1846 (except 2020 when it was closed for COVID-19), our county holds its Fair for a long (6-day) Labor Day weekend, and our little city is host.
While I acknowledge all the people in our USA (including my husband and me) who work hard to produce, serve, and entertain, and even though I'm working and I've asked others to work, too, my focus is on the labor, not the day off.
Since we live so close to the Fairgrounds, we use our lawn for private parking. Each year, we hire several kids to help. For most of them, it’s their first job.
But the Fair is not all work and no play for my husband and me. If our very grown-up kids come in with our growing grandchildren, we can get away for a little while to experience the sights, sounds, and smells for ourselves. (Although the barn smells and cooking smells waft over when the wind blows just right!)
Like all county fairs, ours shows all kinds of farm animals. I could stand in the rooster building all day (if I didn’t have anything else to do) and just listen. A crowing rooster has such a unique sound and a unique message. Wake up! Literally and figuratively is a command I need to hear daily.
Farm equipment, large and small, is on display. Tractors whose tires stand taller than I do, perform all kinds of work from tilling a field to harvesting it.
And produce. A whole building is filled with apples. Corn, hay, and local honey fill another. Pumpkins and gourds are arranged like art.
Flowers, photography, and fine art are yours for the viewing.
But the Fair is interactive, too. You can dress a cow and milk one. You can judge the rooster crowing contest.
You can enter handmade anything from brownies and jam to hand-knit afghans and sweaters and freshly carded wool. From ceramics and pottery to quilts, photographs, and fine art. All are judged for ribbons and recognition.
Dress a gourd in the year’s theme. You could walk away with a ribbon there, too.
One year, I entered my pumpkin muffins. It was the cream cheese frosting, I realized years later, that disqualified them. It does not hold up very well in 80+ degree weather in a hot building for six days.
I have a competitive streak and a desire to prove that I can bake, even though some people say I’m not a very good cook. After the pumpkin muffin fiasco, I was determined to do everything correctly and bring home a beautiful blue ribbon. I decided to enter my challah recipe. It’s an egg-based, braided yeast bread that’s served each Sabbath in traditional Jewish homes.
My recipe book says it’s a prize-winning challah, and with one more week to go, the braid needed more practice than the recipe. But, ribbon or not, I would end up with a freezer full of delicious challah. I’d call that a win!
On the first day of the Fair, I went by myself to look for that big, blue ribbon sitting on my golden challah that reminds me of my gram’s silver old-lady-braid and my own chestnut young-girl-braid. I did not find that blue ribbon, but I was pretty ecstatic to find a smallish, shimmery, white honorable mention ribbon adorning my loaf.
You can play games on the midway, too, and bring home a giant stuffie or a live goldfish (or not). You can eat your way from one end of its 353 acres to the other. Anything that can be fried and/or stuck on a stick will probably be for sale.
Entertainment has included The Lennon Sisters in 1956, and each year since 1968, the Fair has been host to a diversity of acts including Bob Hope, The Monkees, Weird Al, and the Pentatonics. This year, besides the Tractor Pull and the Demolition Derby, Brad Paisley is coming, and so is Lynyrd Skynyrd. If the loudspeakers are aimed correctly and the wind cooperates and I’m standing (or sitting) in the right place, I’ll hear some of it.
And that’s not even the best part.
Each year, my husband and I hire several smart, creative, and high-energy teenagers. This year was no different. They mostly reported for work on time, stayed focused, and worked well together.
I hope they also learned responsibility, time management, and self-respect. I know they had fun. I did, too!
I have every confidence that the world will be in good hands when these kids are in charge.
I hope your Labor Day is the start of a great and productive week!
No book this week, too busy with grandkids, cars, and the first phase of cleanup, but my next one is One Jar of Magic by Corey Ann Haydu (Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollinsPublishers, 2021).
-—Be curious! (and productive)
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