Highlight of the (liturgical??) year...

...well, cultural or social, at least. The Wayne County Fair. We have lived in Wayne Co. Ohio for 33 years, with a couple of years off in other cultural centers, like Suacoco, Liberia and Cambridge, England. Every year the Wayne County Fair causes all other daily affairs to be modified to fit its schedule. Schools from the whole county, with only a few private exceptions, get Fair Monday off, so that kids can show their animals, bands can play, everyone can go on the rides, eat fair food, etc. I have always said that school doesn't really start until after the fair even though it has been in session since late August. A church service is held in the grandstands, and our church does not begin its fall programming until after the fair is over--it just isn't worth it.

We brought Karen home for the Fair this year as we often do because in her mind it is the highlight of year, along with Thanksgiving, Christmas and Halloween. And why not? Barns full of "clean" animals (remind me to tell you my colleague's hilarious story of washing, shampooing, conditioning and drying her son's 15 chickens to prepare them to be shown)--Karen checked out the name of every rabbit in the rabbit barn and got to pet a pgymy goat. Fair food--the greasiest, yummiest, best because we consume it in the heat of the day so that hand shaked-lemonade tastes better than ever. Rides and games to spend money on, judiciously, of course, and with predictable results. She can't handle the wild rides as well as she used to be able to, and that she ever could still surprises me. But oh, they do look tempting. Chuck revels in the school barn where the tables and clocks and desks and dressers and other astonishing woodworking pieces from the county schools are displayed. Every year we never fail to marvel at the quality of the workmanship of these teens (most of whom would probably hate to sit through a calculus or composition class). The flower and craft barn (now that's mom's favorite and this year for the first time I heard a judge telling a crowd what she looks for in the flower arrangements, fascinating....) Old friends to run into--always! Free handouts to gather from various political and commercial and social service agencies. For Karen, always the mistress of nostalgia, the Wayne County Fair represents all that was good in her childhood, and she wants to come back every year even after Chuck and I move to Grand Rapids.

Three years ago, a teen was abducted right outside the fairgrounds; she was raped, murdered and dismembered. Even in bucolic Wayne Co. Ohio. A great place to raise kids. The Fair, where families gather and enjoy the fact that they can trust their neighbors. Karen does not know this happened (I'm not about to tell her and we hang on tightly to her in any case), but for the rest of us here, the Fair as a cultural icon will always be tarnished though still treasured.

P.S. Ellen took pictures at the Fair last year when she was still in the full throes of reverse culture shock. Perhaps she can set up a link to them.