A Fine Day at the Fair

The Pumpkin Festival yesterday was wonderful! I was a little worried about the cold (it was 50 degrees when we left the house this morning -- comfortably brisk to northerners, but pretty darn cold in my books), but the day was simply glorious. The leaves seem to have all turned overnight, the sky was blue, and everyone was smiling. The kids had been most excited about the carnival ride part of the fair, which we saw being set up at a distance from the downtown area, but, very happily, the rides didn’t start ‘til 2:00. We had plenty of time to wander around Main Street, admiring art and produce, eat lunch with our new friends from the Episcopal Church (I had my first tamale – yum!), and watch our neighbors’ granddaughter perform with her dance class (she played the part of a very attractively decorated box). I bought two community cookbooks, one for our church’s youth group, and one for the hospital ladies auxiliary, and found that there actually is a bookstore, though admittedly a very small and gift-shoppy bookstore, in our nearest town. By the time we headed for the rides, I was in such a good mood that I didn’t even mind following the kids around from ride to ride for an hour and a half (it helped the music making ride had a broken music maker, so it was the quietest carnival I’ve ever been to).

In the evening we strolled over to the church at the corner for chicken stew and hot dogs (and about a mile of desserts). They had jumping houses for the kids and long tables to eat at. As newcomers, I thought we might feel a little out of place, but we stayed for two and a half hours meeting and chatting with our new neighbors. The chicken stew was delicious (I’ve never had chicken stew before, but I plan to try to make it), and was served out of an enormous black pot over a fire. After dinner, the kids roasted marshmallows over the coals. Just about everyone we met seemed to have lived in the area forever, and lots of them were related, but we were made very welcome. It was a very nice day.


** We parked in front of "our" church (technically a chapel, but that sounds like a little room attached to a camp cafeteria or hospital to me), and I took a couple pictures because I think it is such a pretty building. In the right hand picture you can see K. running with her balloon, moments before she fell and the balloon escaped (causing much sadness).