The Fair is a Veritable...well, you know

There has been a massive gap in my education and I have lived life in ignorance of my deficiency! I'm stunned to have discovered it only now. Tonight I attended my first ever "Fair". This was the largest open gate (meaning no cost) fair in California, known in these parts as The Caruthers Fair.

Being the amazingly fortunate mother that I am (I was going to leave it at 'amazing', but decided to stick with honesty), we just finished reading "Charlotte's Web" a couple of weeks ago. Tonight was like a vocabulary lesson come to life.

We saw a ferris wheel-- Chatterbox called upon her utmost powers of persuasion as she begged me for a ride, but I wasn't about to let my preschooler, my husband, or anyone I knew, get on that rickety old thing. (I don't care if Fern and Henry rode it for hours without incident.) Instead, we let her ride a kiddie coaster, an airplane ride, and a car ride. Then she and Smidget had three turns each on the giant slide with Dad, and ended the riding portion with a tea-cup-esque dragon ride from which I kept a large distance. After blowing twenty bucks on kiddie rides, we headed for something new.

We saw cows, goats, calfs, sheep and yes! pigs--no rats, thankfully (no offense to Templeton but fictional rats are much preferred to real-live ones). The animals had their award ribbons posted too, though none of the pigs were as big as Uncle or as small as Wilbur. Come to think of it, they all looked about the same to me. I wonder how they get their awards? I noticed that the book doesn't really touch on the odor hovering around the general animal vicinity, or the hundreds of flies who reside all over the pigs; gag. There were no spider webs in sight, and that was something of a disappointment for C-box. She and I have been talking recently about mammals and what they have in common. Earlier today she wanted to know how the cows' milk gets in the bucket. I attempted to explain it, which involved me using the word "nipples" more than I usually do. So tonight, she was pretty excited to see the cows' "nipples" at the fair. (This is where you want to shush your child, but know you probably should encourage their curiosity instead. Also, you don't want to risk their reply [in escalating volume] of "But Mom, that's what you called them!")

We saw a smorgasbourd of tasty treats (the computer says I spelled this wrong but the only suggestions it gives are orgasmic and other similar derivatives, so I'm gonna stick with my own spelling and hope you get my gist)--in fact, we tried our fair share: corn dog, chocolate cream pie; tri-tip sandwich; ice cream; ribs; cotton-candy. The pie was my blue-ribbon favorite, cotton candy was sticky-hands-down the girls' choice. They also picked up two boxes of raisins, a chocolate kiss, a sucker and some stickers as we viewed some of the booths, so they were in heaven. (Just before bed, Melissa burped and up came a little puke. Serves me right, I guess.)

We saw overgrown pumpkins and cucumbers (worthy of a prize, but what else can you do with them?), cotton on the branches, chili peppers, corn on its stalk, and various other plants that the 4H kids had grown.

I don't know if you've been to a fair, but I was enchanted. The atmosphere was down-home, friendly, and safe. Caruthers is a small, country town where people have roots. They knew each other, and smiled and were friendly to strangers (namely, me!) I felt like my kids had a great time, but learned something too. Living in the country has been enriching in many ways; seeing where our food comes from and learning about things at this basic level has been a valuable lesson.

And thanks to E.B. White, it was a literary experience as well. There's nothing like text-to-world connections! One more delayed bonus I am hoping for: my kids just might sleep in tomorrow.