Traditionally (since I’ve been with Xie) we don’t normally go to county fairs. Of course, there have been brief dabbles, a single visit or so to the Lorain County Fair or visits to the Lane County Fair when we lived in Eugene, but nothing planned ahead of time, more of a whim of the moment. Somehow this year is different.
Growing up the county fair was a yearly ritual. We would look forward to it, when we could make it down to Greenville we would go to the Darke County Fair, and visit the other county fairs around us. It was a family event where we would all do things together. I was never allowed to ride fair rides because “They were death traps”. I still managed to enjoy it anyways, I wasn’t a fan of the animals or plants, but I enjoyed it somehow anyways.
Why did Xie and I never go to the fair? I don’t know. It wasn’t cool enough. It cost too much for what we got out of it. It wasn’t a high priority of ours. All of the above. Whenever we talked about going to the fair it was more of a meh kind of thing. So if the opportunity came up on a whim, we went. It was never ever something we planned out and said you know what we should do next month, we should go to the fair. To be fair (pun not intended) we do most of our stuff on a whim. I think we planned the Crater Lake trip we took 2-3 days before we went (since we needed reservations).
Last weekend however we managed to make it to the Richland County Fair (man their website sucks goats). It was the first day, and none of the rides was set up and some other things were still being constructed when we visited. Being the first day and early afternoon we gave them some slack; that and it was only one dollar per person to get in. However, it was a Sunday, you would have thought they would have had everything set up the day before. Must be something in the Ohio water that breeds laziness. We did manage to eat some fair food and look at all of the animals, vegetables, and crafts. I can say I have a different eye when looking at photography now, though it’s not the same eye as Xie – otherwise, we would have to trade throughout today to get anything done. We also managed to get to see another community band (I missed which one) and listened to someone else play some of the songs that I play with my band.
Next on the agenda is next Thursday, I’ll be playing at the Lorain County Fair with the VCMA. This will be my first trip back to the Lorain County Fair in at least eight years (maybe longer). There is a chance I’ll run into my kindergarten teacher, my family always ran into her we went growing up. Yes, she should know who I am, she only taught for one year. It should at least be interesting and I have free tickets.
On September 16th I’ll be playing with the Ashland Community Band at the Ashland County Fair. Now I can say that the last time I visited the Ashland County Fair was when I was in college, so that was back in 1994. It’s been 14 years since I’ve been to this fair, and the first time I’ll be playing with this group in this type of venue. It should be interesting, to say the least. Band practices start on September 2nd, so we’ll have a whopping two rehearsals before the fair. We’ll see how it goes.
