Popcorn, Rabbits, and a Red Rubber Ball

We'll probably bring Nate to the Big E for the first time this month -- that's the Eastern States Exposition, New England's largest agricultural fair, and one of the biggest in the country. We warmed up recently at the Blandford Fair, which offered some of the same attractions on a much, much smaller scale. Nate dug it.

Welcome to Blandford! Just in case anyone forgets where they are.

 

Nate has learned over time how to "pet nice," and actually does a pretty good job of being affectionate with Mav and Rip without stepping on them, pulling body parts, etc. He demonstrated his technique with two goats that probably just wanted this weekend of petting to be over with. The one in the foreground looks especially traumatized.

Don't let him pet the rabbits, George ... Don't let him pet the rabbits, George ... Don't let him pet the rabbits, George ...

Of course, one of the highlights of any fair is fair food, with batter and grease being the top two ingredients of most items. Hey, if you want health food, stay home. Or, better yet, just visit the booth that sells veggies...

...which are also fried.

These horses were fried, in another way, by the end of a long, hot day dragging thousands of pounds of cement blocks for no good reason. Of course, it was really no less pointless than those ESPN Toughman competitions, and people sit down with beers and chips to watch those. I was actually kind of impressed by these guys, three of whom had to manually pull the horses to a stop if they didn't get hooked up to the sled properly. I told Jenn, "that's a little more man than me." She smiled reassuringly at her big, strong ... health care writer.

 

Nate happened to be first in line for a balloon-bending clown, who made this critter -- Bugs Bunny after the lobotomy, I'm guessing -- for the little guy. I asked the clown how many years he had been making balloon animals, to do something this cool, and he said, "you never stop learning. There's really nothing we can't make. The only barrier is time." Nate was happy to wait for Bugs, who got played with all the way home and -- to our astonishment -- survived with each inflated limb intact. That clown was good.

Not much to say here, except that Nate officially loves ponies. He's been talking about his first pony ride ever since, and followed up a few days later with a few solo rides -- with no one supporting him -- at his school. Jenn took him to that (which is good, because I probably would have been freaking out), and said he grinned the whole time he was on the horse. Looks like that dude-ranch weekend we've been talking about might not be too many years away.

Of course, any fair worth its salt has a midway where pimply, shifty-eyed carnies rig games and steal your money. But Nate likes penguins, and amazingly, this game offered a prize every round. So Jenn and I made sure we were the only competitors and got down to business shooting water into the red dot, pumping the penguins higher and higher on the pole. Which sounds like a global warming metaphor.

You might think your local agricultural fair's pretty awesome. You are wrong, because your fair doesn't feature a girl who simultaneously fiddles and balances on a rubber ball. Ha! Out-redneck that, North Carolina!

And when the popcorn is done, it's time to go home.