The Rural Voice, 1982-11, Page 35■ GISELE IRELAND ■
Getting ready
for the fair
The day before the big fall fair,this place looks like a chicken
coop with a fox dropped in it. Everyone is getting their
contribution ready for the big day and I'm following everyone
around supposedly helping keep order. I got the job of painting
the quilt racks Brian built for the ladies'
division. They were white and the flies kept
using it for a landing strip. My first efforts at
the drill press consisted of brackets that were
needed and they had to have three holes for
screws. It was almost like making button
holes on the sewing machine. I was instructed
to paint them black so they would be ready
for the next morning. 1 was in a rush so
dipped them in the paint instead. No one told
me it took a week to dry this way and I had to
wash them off with gas the next morning so
they could be handled. Instead of a nice shiny black bracket they
were a mottled grey with the odd spot of rust for decoration.
One of the kids is in the calf club and the other in the horse
club. The other two are mucking through the kitchen baking like
mad. The calf and the horse looked better than the kids when
they were done primping them and the laundry was fantastic. We
couldn't find the white show pants and left the upstairs knee deep
in clothes locating them. 1 washed the western shirt and the
fringe came out looking like a bunch of bunnies had chewed it so
it needed running repairs.
I tripped over a saddle, half polished and scattered all over the
dining room floor, to reach my son who was using an eight inch
meat cleaver to carve his pumpkin.
The cake that won a prize is still stuck on some parts of the
cupboards. I never knew that sour cream could fly in so many
directions when whipped with the beaters half -way in the bowl.
During this orgy the cake baker made Brian a cup of coffee for
breakfast and dropped egg yolk in it. She instructed him to sip it
through his teeth to avoid the egg yolk as she didn't have time to
make another.
The pumpkin carver at this point decided that he needed a
tongue sticking out of his offering and a black patch for one eye.
This meant a quick muss through the fabric for the right stuff
while instructing the youngest in her no -bake cookie entry. She
didn't muss the oven but the mixture of peanut butter and corn
syrup is a recommended alternative for welding steel together and
I almost had to get the crow bar to remove the utensils from the
countertops.
Fair day was beautiful, no rain and no rubber boots needed.
We walked around and admired all the entries and congratulated
the kids on their efforts. The calf and the horse were transported
home and still can't figure out why people take them out for such
a day of utter confusion. I dreaded the thought all day of
someone dropping in for a visit before I had the chance to use
soap and water and a broom on the house. The entrants left chaos
behind and brought home grinning faces, a few ribbons, and
clothes covered with cotton candy, candied apples and anything
else they could pick up. Quiet things, like cap guns and bird
whistles.
MegWal
�ikucal
November 11-20,1982
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THE RURAL VOICE i NOVEMBER 1982 PG. 35
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