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So... other stuff we've been doing besides our Conanicut Island bike ride
from the Jamestown harbor area to Beavertail State Park and back (which
was a nice eight mile round trip -- and the nice thing about it was that,
although there were more hills than I had anticipated and than I encounter
in my usual bike rides, it was no more effort than my typical ten or twelve
mile rides, so I think my fitness level is pretty good even though I have
not been running [and even though I still tend to get tangled up in nested
parenthetical expressions]) and where was I going with this sentence, anyway?
Ah, yes, to the county fair -- the 40th Annual Washington County Fair -- was our first visit to the fair in many years. We went back in 1996,
our first summer living here in South County (the official name is Washington
County -- prior to the Revolution it was Kings County -- but everyone calls
it South County -- the name of the county fair is just about the only exception
that I can think of) we took the kids (Jill was 14 and Jeremy was 11) and
I think we went back the next two summers but haven't been there since.
Nancy was attracted to the fair this year by the country music... Back
when the fair committee had first located the land where the fair is held,
they were struck by the way a wooded hillside formed a natural amphitheatre
and they build a stage facing the hillside and people gather for the outdoor
concerts, bringing folding chairs or blankets or just sitting on a handy
boulder.
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| David Lee Murphy performing at the fair. |
Nancy is a country music fan... |
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Despite having a midway area with carnival rides, the Washington County Fair grew out of (and is still run by) the local Granges and the fair is set as a family-friendly environment (absolutely no alcoholic
beverages on the fairgrounds), there is a strong emphasis on agriculture
(with strong 4H and FFA connections), livestock exhibits, blue ribbon competitions for everything
from best pig to best broccoli, tractor-pull contests, arm-wrestling, seed-spitting,
and dung-throwing contests, etc. Food sales are all done as fund-raisers
by local community organizations, every group you can think of from local
volunteer fire brigades, boy scout troops, and church groups to the Portuguese-American
Cultural Association (a significant number of Rhode Island residents are
of Portuguese ancestry). |
| Mmmmm, yummy jams and jellies... |
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We've also been doing a lot of baby-sitting The Towers and Kinney Bungalow for weddings and such (for those who are not regulars at this site I guess I should explain that
Nancy and I are in the pool of people who work as attendants when the town
rents out a couple of historic buildings, serving partly as museum docents,
explaining the history of the buildings, but also being there to monitor
the party and protect the building and to respond to problems or emergencies)
I think I've mostly had Towers pictures here this year, so here are some Kinney Bungalow pictures.
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| Cocktails on the lawn late on a summer afternoon. |
This couple planned their ceremony to take place inside by the west windows
at sunset. |
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| Tables set for the wedding dinner.. |
This wedding featured a dinner buffet... |
Other stuff...
Nancy had a tennis match one day on the grass courts at the Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, so I dropped her off there, and took advantage of running
into my office to print a whole stack of stuff I needed printed, picked
her up when her game was over, and took a quick tour of Rosecliff (the Gilded Age mansion that has played a role in various movies, ranging from The Great Gatsby to True Lies) before coming back home to finish my day's work.
We also found time to attend some evening lectures about some local history
topics... and I've also been doing a bit of historical research myself...
Well, I don't want to wear out your vertical scroll bar so I think I'll
close this entry
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