The Heart of the County Fair

Today we headed to the Anne Arundel County Fair at the county fairgrounds on Generals Highway just north of Annapolis. We walked by the booths selling stuff or promoting something or someone. We visited the barns with the prize-winning poultry and livestock. We saw the kids in white pants and white shirts showing their cows. We ate ice cream and popcorn and drank lemonade and water. Colleen rode down a big slide and round-and-round the merry-go-round.

All of that was fun, but, for us, the heart of the fair is the exhibit hall, with the plates of fruit and vegetables (lots of red peppers, for some reason), the gigantic watermelon (193 pounds!) and pumpkins, the 4-H projects, the walls hung with photographs and artwork and needlepoint, the quilts hanging above like championship banners, the rows of jellies and preserves and honey and porcelain: things that people planned and made and brought to the fair.

Laury and Colleen are learning how to quilt, so the quilts on display got a lot of our attention this year - they recognized familiar patterns and saw some truly unique creations. All of the quilts were well-done; some were more attractive than others, of course. In all of them we recognized the hours of hard work that go into making something; they were inspiring. We make things and want someone to see them; we want someone to say that it is good. The exhibit hall is the heart of the county fair for it contains the objects into which people have put their brains and muscles and skill and care.