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At the fair

This afternoon, we went to the county fair. It was $1 Day, which meant we (a family of four) got in for a $1 each, and every ride was $1--a deal by any stretch. As far as fairs go, it was on the small side, half of the area seemingly given up to small open-sided buildings filled with cows, goats, sheep, rabbits and the like, with small clusters of kids, parents and older folk sitting in folding chairs or on bales of hay playing cards, watching the animals and simply enjoying each other. Which made it feel like the way a county fair should feel. (Does the little guy below make you think there must be an awfully interesting conversation on the other side of that wall? My kids thought so.)

We ate our share of cotton candy, corn dogs, BBQ ribs, candy apples, powdered-sugared funnel cake and salty popcorn. And, no, those were not $1 each. I wish. We played a couple of midway games, aiming a minature water cannon at a plastic clown's mouth and cork-shooting rifles at plastic cups (from which the kids walked away with a small rainbow stripped stuffed fish and a yellow purple-winged stuffed butterfly). Our always-daring 10-year-old daughter dragged her dad on the more stomach-turning rides, while our five-year-old son and I partook of people watching and cell phone games. I used to be able to ride those things, but somewhere along the way my inner ears got old and I get stupidly sick on them now. Go figure.

On the way out of the fair, we had extra ride tickets left over, so my husband gave them to our son (who was sitting on his shoulders) to hand out to anyone he wanted as we left. He chose to hand a couple to a pony-tailed, grizzled biker dude (who grinned up at him and winked) and the rest to a young boy waiting in line with his dad. That's my boy.

It was a wonderful day. Most people were happy, toddlers were wide-eyed and folks (from grandparents to mohawked teens to even the guy behind the midway game counter) were really friendly with each other. Grounds my hope about folks in general. And gives a little taste of what life used to be and still is and will be. A good day.