The County Fair

Well it seems to be the season for fairs, so in a show of comraderie with my sister, (and, okay, because it was a beautiful Sunday up in Maine), Zach and I went to the Acton Fair today.

It was nice to get out and about, and this fair had all the good stuff fairs should have. Lots of great animals, a midway, tons of bad food… and… to my delight… an antique tractor show.
Of course, Zach wanted to do the rides and the junk food, and I wanted to oggle the tractors. One fellow had a beautiful 1951 Ford 8-N tractor that I got to clamber all over and poke at while Zach sat in the seat and asked what all the levers did. (For the 3 people who read my blog who don’t know this, this tractor was the exact type we had at the farm, and I have a soft spot in my heart for it).
Zach and I split the difference, and we agreed he’d get first shot on the midway rides (he tried out this big bungie jumping ride, which was a lot of fun, and also hooked up to a climbing harness and climbed a rock wall – course he got about 11′ up and realized how high he was, and wanted down right away – he did the right thing and after a little prompting simply let go and came down on belay. Fun!)
After that we went over to the main area, and watched the antique tractor pulls – there were some golden oldies in the bunch, including 2 8N’s! Apparently they’re in the ‘3500lb weight class’ (I didn’t know they were so heavy), and did mighty well. There were some older Farmalls there (including one that had to be from around 1920, that alas did’nt do well, but the fellow was a great sport about it).
On the way out, we went by a full english horseshow going on on the other side of the field. Zach wasn’t interested in going to watch it, but I did have mental flashbacks of going to horseshows and listening to loudspeakers from my youth. 🙂
Tonight we’ll grab some dinner at the Pub in town, then head home. All in all a good Sunday.