Moose Eyes Ribbon at Wells County Fair
Fair time in Fessenden is a sentimental journey for many. It’s the one time of the year when one can count on meeting up with family and friends who may not have seen each other since last year at fair time, or the year before that, or many years ago.
Classes plan reunions for fair time. Families whose members may be scattered far and wide know it is a good time for get-togethers. While the winter holidays may be the more traditional gathering season, the weather can be unpredictable. Summer is better for travel. Friends from childhood are likely to be in town during fair time, whether their school classes have reunions planned or not.
Frank Hawkridge says, “It’s Old Home Week. It’s when families get together.” His wife Glenda agrees. “It’s a family tradition, the way you’re brought up. You come home for the fair. Everyone’s always so happy and just have a good time.” The Hawkridge family is familiar to Wells County
Rick Jensen from Harvey
It’s just a good time all the way around. Besides the carnival atmosphere, the fair entertainment offers festive activities, live music to dance to, and ribbons by the score in the competitions. Celebrating with friends and family makes it all more special.
When generations of families gather together at fair time, the oldsters may well start talking about ‘the good old days’ (which weren’t always so good, more of a challenge most often) and the youngsters get a chance to listen and learn. If they pay attention they can learn much of great value. Their elders have the advantage of years of perspective, decades of experience, and lifetimes of learning from successes, and mistakes. The stories are interesting, more so because they involve people you know and are probably related to.
Memories abound at fair time. Everyone has a favorite memory that revolves around going to the fair. It may be riding the ferris wheel on a first date. It may be getting a blue ribbon with a 4-H project. It may be winning a stuffed animal at one of the carnival games for your girlfriend. It may be the time someone in particular was soaked at the dunk tank. It may be a not so favorite memory of getting sick after going on a ride one too many times – on a full stomach of caramel apples, cotton candy, foot long hot dogs, and lemonade.
Welcoming hugs and strong handshakes when old friends meet again are just the beginnings of conversations about yesteryear, today, and the future. Walking around the fairgrounds at fair time, one never knows who might walk up with one of those hugs or handshakes.
‘Remember when…?’ is one of the most-voiced expressions during fair time. That’s what happens when groups of people get together. The bonds that have been forged over the lifetimes of people are reinforced. Intervening years evaporate once the ‘catching up’ has been tended to. The best of times past are revisited and re-enjoyed with laughter and perhaps an occasional tear.
The fair rides aren’t nearly as exciting to adults as they are to children, but every adult can reconnect with the child inside at fair time. The smell of fair food, cotton candy and fried food, can return one to childhood in an instant. The sound of voices talking and laughing, midway music and engines, grandstand noises, and activity going on at the Free Stage can trigger feelings one may not have felt in many years. As evening approaches, the lights bring their own excitement. The taste of lemonade at the fair is like no other. It goes with the environment. A trip to the barns means one might be able to feel the silky texture of the coat of a well-tended 4-H animal. At the fair the senses are saturated. It fills them all.
Remembering is maybe the biggest part of going to the fair. People can and do thoroughly enjoy every year’s experiences and add them to the extensive collection already accumulated. The trip down memory lane, the sentimental journey, the nostalgia, are precursors of the best part of all – going back next year.
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