A Day at the Grange Fair

Sheep

Sleeping Pigs

Alpacas

Tractor display

On this particular morning in mid-August, I woke up without any plans for the day, but that changed when I got a text from my brother.  He was going to the annual Middletown Grange Fair with his wife and son, and invited me to come along.  Farm animals are not plentiful in my area, so I jumped at the chance to go with them.  There actually was a time during my childhood when most of the area north of my home was farmland, but that changed with the development boom that hit in the 70s and 80s. Over a fairly short period of time, the acres of cornstalks and pumpkin patches that defined the countryside were transformed into housing developments and shopping centers.  Narrow country roads were widened, and bypasses were soon built to handle the volumes of new daily traffic that soon followed.  Small patches of farmland remained, but the rural to suburban metamorphosis was pulled off fairly quickly.  That is one of the reasons why I was quick to grab my camera go with them.

The grange fair is usually held during the third week of August, in Wrightstown, Pa. and is similar to what I imagine the old county and state fairs were (and still are) like.  Once there, we moved quickly through the covered pavilions that served as temporary homes for the animals on display.  The first thing I noticed approaching the stalls was the noise.  I heard plenty of farm animals, such as cows mooing and roosters crowing.  Although I am quite familiar with those sounds, I only know them from hearing recordings and watching television.  I rarely ever come close enough to these animals to hear them live.  I heard them all, except for the pigs, which were all sleeping.  One other thing I noticed about the animals, especially about the pigs, was the smell.  That is something no audio or video recording could convey. Being around pigs would take some getting used to for me, and building a tolerance to their odor would take a while.  I also got to see the alpacas that were on display there.  I guess some farmers around here find use for these Andean camels, unless they came from a petting zoo.

We didn’t stay there too long, since my little nephew was starting to get antsy.  I would have liked to have stayed around to see a few more things, such as the pig races that were about to begin when we left.  But overall I’m glad simply to have made my way there, and that I brought my camera with me.  I guess if I could define the fair in a nutshell, I would say it’s a celebration of all things rural, and a reminder of the historical roots of this area.  And it is good to celebrate our rural heritage as it fades further back in the rearview mirror.