Topsfield Fair
Oct. 6th, 2016 10:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lauradi7dwYesterday we took a Canadian friend of Arthur's to the Topsfield Fair, an agricultural fair with a very long history. topsfieldfair.org K was hoping for Americana, and we found some. There are still 4H and FFA participants, prizes for the best jam (and many other arts, crafts, and food products), local treats, and demonstrations. It felt smaller and more commercialized to us, though. I think it's been about fifteen years since we last attended, and it seemed to us that there were fewer large farm animals and more standardized junk food booths. It's hard to know whether there are fewer small animals, because K was speed-walking through most of the barns. We missed a couple of aisles in the chicken barn, a whole aisle in the rabbit and cavy area (but saw enough to worry that the "Naked" guinea pigs looked like they were shivering in the chill), and barely saw the goats. I was OK with skipping most of the painted pumpkin display (seemingly most were contributed by Girl Scout troops), but the field-trip group of first graders (I think) we kept seeing were fascinated by the painted pumpkins. Maybe they perceived them as something they could go home and duplicate, as opposed to the quilts and fancy woodworking and other adult crafts.
In the sales area, I got sucked in to a booth for skin youthening products. One of them did visibly reduce the wrinkles on my forehead, but the demonstrator removed it in order to apply two other products. These things are astoundingly expensive, and despite the evidence in the mirror, I wasn't about to spend that kind of money without doing in-depth research on the ingredients and such. He was annoyed, but I certainly hadn't promised to buy anything. Our (non-fair) experience with high pressure window salespeople when we moved into this house in the late 80s has made us inclined to never buy anything costly without massive research and a cooling-off period. I still use the mop I bought at the fair last time, though. It's kind of like a Swiffer (which didn't exist at the time) but with a washable head, or whatever one would call it.
There was one booth offering offensive Trump t-shirts (and cowboy hats, and many other items) but mostly the fair seemed to be going for wholesome family fare. There were no beer tents. No smoking was allowed anywhere near the animals or in other buildings. Most areas seemed very accessible, and I was interested to see a handicapped bathroom labeled "adult changing room." A good acknowledgement that such a place is needed, and probably really helpful for caregivers. We didn't go near the main rides area, and they had the rides for really little children in a separate area. Before we saw them, I had some animal-rights concerns about the "wacky emu races" but the proprietor told the story of rescuing them when they were abandoned and the emus were not pressured in any way to win. Or even cross the finish line. One of them was more inclined to stick his/her face through the fence to stare at the audience instead of walking to the end of the pen, the designated finish area.
For further walking, we spent some time in traffic and walked around in the Lynn Woods, which was very nice. I felt bad that the stereotypes I have about Lynn did not include well-maintained conservation land with trails. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D8_F-_2mmk
In the sales area, I got sucked in to a booth for skin youthening products. One of them did visibly reduce the wrinkles on my forehead, but the demonstrator removed it in order to apply two other products. These things are astoundingly expensive, and despite the evidence in the mirror, I wasn't about to spend that kind of money without doing in-depth research on the ingredients and such. He was annoyed, but I certainly hadn't promised to buy anything. Our (non-fair) experience with high pressure window salespeople when we moved into this house in the late 80s has made us inclined to never buy anything costly without massive research and a cooling-off period. I still use the mop I bought at the fair last time, though. It's kind of like a Swiffer (which didn't exist at the time) but with a washable head, or whatever one would call it.
There was one booth offering offensive Trump t-shirts (and cowboy hats, and many other items) but mostly the fair seemed to be going for wholesome family fare. There were no beer tents. No smoking was allowed anywhere near the animals or in other buildings. Most areas seemed very accessible, and I was interested to see a handicapped bathroom labeled "adult changing room." A good acknowledgement that such a place is needed, and probably really helpful for caregivers. We didn't go near the main rides area, and they had the rides for really little children in a separate area. Before we saw them, I had some animal-rights concerns about the "wacky emu races" but the proprietor told the story of rescuing them when they were abandoned and the emus were not pressured in any way to win. Or even cross the finish line. One of them was more inclined to stick his/her face through the fence to stare at the audience instead of walking to the end of the pen, the designated finish area.
For further walking, we spent some time in traffic and walked around in the Lynn Woods, which was very nice. I felt bad that the stereotypes I have about Lynn did not include well-maintained conservation land with trails. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D8_F-_2mmk
