THE FAIR

• 3 bottles Red Hook Summer Ale - Isner's house

Sometime from when I was 2 years old or so until 8 years old, I lived in Puyallup, a small town about 40 minutes south of Seattle. It's grown much since I lived there 32+ years ago, but Main Street is still the same as it was when I lived there. The Western Washington Fairgrounds inhabit much of the downtown area of Puyallup and it was here that I have many great memories. Riding in the backseat of the car down the steep hill of Meridian and into downtown, I never forgot to look into the fairgrounds, vacant most of the year, dreaming of the late summer days when I could finally ride the rollercoaster and enter baked goods for prizes. The wooden rollercoaster was my very favorite ride, and I still love coasters to this day. It would clackety-clack up the first steep hill; the large chain pulling it, pulling it to the top, where the sign at the crest read "Keep arms inside the car at all times." When the final car was released from the hold of the chains, the coaster would speed down, rickety-ricking over the steel tracks, shuddering the wooden supports below and securing my body against the boxed confines of the cart. I loved the roller coaster and looked forward to it throughout the year.

As much as I loved the roller coaster, I may have loved entering baked goods more. My mom taught me how to bake at a fairly early age and when I was five, she helped me with my very first entry into the Western Washington Fair: Hot Wheel Sugar Cookies. My mom was clever and Hot Wheels were those little metal cars that were very popular. She thought it would be a good idea to make sugar cookies cut in the shape of a car, and then use red hots to outline the shape of the car, hence, (such a funny word!) Hot Wheel Sugar Cookies! I won a blue ribbon (First Premium!) and a scan of it is shown above. It was September 15, 1972 - 12 days before my sixth birthday. I think it's funny that the category was "WOMENS HANDCRAFTS". Over the next few years I continued entering baked goods....Blueberry Coffee Cake (blue ribbon), Blueberry Pie (red ribbon (the crust burst and the pie spilled through)), and Nut Bread (blue ribbon). Later, when we moved to Kansas, I continued entering items in the fair - Finney County Free Fair - ranging from flowers, furniture, collections, my cat(!), my cat's cage, woodcrafts, fruit, and models. I won many ribbons, but it was my first one for Hot Wheel Sugar Cookies of which I am most proud.

Susan, London, and I went to the fair today and it is much like I remember it. I love going and it's amazing how much it's the same...the animals - cattle, bunnies, chickens (I loved watching the just-hatched chicks in the incubator when I was younger), sheep, goats, horses, cats, and dogs; the dairy room with the life-size butter cow and free milk; the collection of quilts, flowers, fruits, and baked goods; and the wonderful world of amusement park rides. The same roller coaster is there, but I didn't see it running. There's an innocence to the fair - so much has changed in 40 years - yet the fair exists on it's own timeline. Quilters will always quilt, bakers will always bake, vegetable designers will always lay out their prized vegetables in amazing arrays, and farmers will always compete for "Largest Squash". I look forward to the day when I can return with London, showing him the fair that I grew up with, and perhaps, just maybe, he'll enter his own version of Hot Wheel Sugar Cookies.