“Can you spend an extra day when you come home for Thanskgiving?”,  my sister-in-law Cynthia asked me a couple months ago.

“I’m not sure yet. Why?”

“Then you can go to the Rockton Fair with us!”

I had never heard of the Rockton Fair.

To be honest, I’d never even heard of Rockton, a village not far from my hometown.

But I’m not one to say to an outing in the country, so Thanksgiving weekend, we joined David, Cynthia, and her sister Joanne for an evening at the fair.

Rockton World’s Fair? Amusing! Later I found the following on the website:

The Rockton Agricultural Society has come a long way since the first Beverly Agricultural Society Fair was held in October 1852.

According to the information recorded in ” The Pioneers of Beverly “, October 20th was a ” Glorious Indian Summer Day “.

In 1934 the Beverly Agricultural Society became the North Wentworth Agricultural Society and in 1966 the name was changed to the present Rockton Agricultural Society.

In 1878 Andrew Kernighan commented that the fair should be called the “World’s Fair” because all of the world comes to it. The next day local newspapers carried an article about the fair entitled “The World’s Fair at Rockton“.

So… World’s Fair it is.

It was fun! When I was young, the county fair was a huge deal! Rides, candy floss, games… and not much has changed!

I was mesmerized by the lights in the ferris wheel… what great photo opps!

The busy-ness of the midway, the warmth of the food booths, the laughter and screams of kids – it all made up for the cold weather that day.

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This ride was called ‘Freak-Out’ – it was so intriguing, because of its huge size, lights and the screams that accompanied each giant swing.

It’s funny – in a giant theme park, this ride would just blend in among the others.  But here in a temporary set up in a field in the middle of nowhere ROCKton, it’s the star!

The website also claims: “Agriculture is the highlight of the fair and education of agriculture is our objective.” We didn’t see the poultry and other livestock, but we did see some other exhibits. Prize-winning… HAY!

At the first fair 150+ years ago, apparently there was $194.50 in prize money paid to exhibitors. Now the prize money total is $80,000!

The categories are endless… all kinds of fruits, vegetables and grains (those are soybeans in the glass displays below), preserves, arts and crafts (from photography to quilts to wreaths), Christmas trees, and so much more. It’s so cute – there are categories for everyone in the community!

These are the projects entered by school children.

4-H displays. This really brings back memories! Dozens of years ago (sigh), my 4-H club and I also entered our displays in the local fair.

But okay…

The real reason we were invited to the Rockton Fair?

The true drawing card?

It was…

(I’m sorry for this…)

The Demolition Derby!

Oh yeah.

It was so bad it was good.

Don’t knock it till you’ve  done it yourself – sitting there on a chilly night under your sister-in-law’s blankets, with a hot apple cider in your hands…

You’ll be swept up in unexpected thrills as you watch old beaters being crashed into each other till only one is still moving.

And then you watch the machinery come in to remove the demolished cars to make way for the next group.

I can’t explain my brief relapse into hillbilly-ness. I have to admit I didn’t expect it to be as fun as it was. Mehmet loved it too!

Isn’t it great that our life contains bits of life like this:

AND this?