Fair Days

Yesterday was a wonderful breezy mild 82 degrees in our town and off to the state fair we went.  I read recently that many states are giving up their state fairs due to low attendance and financial difficulties.  I hope our great state fair in Colorado stays open forever.  I have been to state fairs in Minnesota, Utah and our state fair in Pueblo, Colorado.  I love the feeling of fall and I adore the homemakers section of the fair.  The breads and canned goods.  Jars and jars of pickles and peaches and jams and jellies.  The colorful blue ribbons are a wonderful.  The state fair represents years of tradition generations of tradition.   I think the folks who take the time to can and bake and enter their items in the fair are to be commended for keeping us steeped in tradition!  I have made concord grape jelly before and it was hard work.  The jelly never did set very well but my house smelled heavenly for weeks from concord grapes.  There is such a grounded feeling of nostalgia when you cook up a batch of jelly and then spend the next few months smothering your toast with peach preserves or orange marmalade.  I guess I will always have a part of me that will be connected to the past by tradition of the present.  My hat goes off to anyone who take  the time to enter their carefully created items in the state fair or any fair.  We need this so much in our lives!