One of the favorite summer events growing up was heading to the county fair.   It’s a place that kids get to show off their 4-H projects, be it an animal they raised or a sweater they knit, or fruit they canned.   We’d win ribbons, ride the carnival rides, watch tractor pulls or musical concerts and eat fancy junk food.  Grown ups can ride and eat too;  I think it’s really a place for kids of all ages.

I have fond memories of excitedly deciding which rides to spend my limited amount of tickets on, and checking out the barns where all the animals were, not to mention perusing the other project displays areas, to see if we won any ribbons that year.  Mostly I have memories of lights and colors and sounds and smells.

Well it happens that my tiny little town has the fairgrounds and every year for a week in July we host the county fair.  It’s just a couple miles up the road and though I’ve lived here almost 20 years I’ve never been.  Somehow it comes and goes and I always think I’ll make it next year.

This year I marked my mental calendar and Friday night after work I headed up the hill to the fair.  I got there around 7 and had to park in the far far far away lot, back several farm fields from the fair, but it was a nice walk.

And as I got closer I could hear the sounds of my childhood.  Someone was singing, there were monster trucks roaring, hawkers were selling their wares and people were squealing on the rides.  Awesome!

I took my camera because I thought that maybe I’d find something for Scott’s photography assignment, or maybe Karma’s August photo scavenger hunt. You never know, and the county fair has endless possibilities.  You’ll have to wait to learn how my search for appropriate shots turned out.  I do encourage you to visit their blogs and check out the assignments, because this is just so much fun.

I have a feeling I’ll be sharing more stories of the fair in future blogs.  Stay tuned.  (Remember to click on the photos to make them bigger and easier to see!)