If you haven’t already been, get your rear in gear and get down to the 63rd Addison County Fair and Field Days for a taste of Addison County authenticity. Events started Tuesday and end this Saturday, Aug. 13.
What you’ll find are the best-of-the-best farmers, sugarmakers and bakers competing for blue ribbons and the bragging rights that go with winning. You’ll find daring men and women ramming into each other’s vehicles in the Demolition Derby and competing in tractor pulls. You’ll witness teams of horses and oxen pulling almost inconceivable amounts of weight in a test of willpower and skill among men and their animals; and you’ll watch kids, who have worked with their livestock for the past several months, grooming and showing their animals in a high-stakes show-ring competition.
There’s also the rides on the midway, the cotton candy and fried dough, the exhibits, the music and entertainment, the arm-wrestling, the CNC Motorcross Show, and new special events that keep the week-long extravaganza fresh and entertaining year after year.
What you miss if you don’t go is that reminder from whence we came. Vermont, and Addison County in particular, is an agricultural-based community, and even if our economy is more diversified today and even if the number of active farms is on the decline, our heritage is still steeped in those who have been working the land for the past 200-plus years.
That’s no small thing, and remembering it each year makes us know ourselves even better as we explore tomorrow’s possibilities. Besides, a day at the fair is simply a lot of fun.