On Sunday afternoon we headed south of the Mason-Dixon Line to the annual Cecil County Fair and had a great time. We listened to bluegrass music and marveled at huge farm equipment. We checked out the prize cows, sheep, goats, poultry, and rabbits in the livestock barns and the prize flowers, vegetables, crafts, artwork, canned goods, and baked items in the 4-H barn.
We skipped the midway, the demolition derby and the Deep Fried Oreo vendor; we tried the greasy battered cookies at last year's fair and immediately concluded that once in a lifetime is enough. Instead we ate tasty BBQ sandwiches and ice cream.
The highlight of the trip for me was the Diesel Truck Pull, in which specially fortified pickup trucks try to pull a giant weighted sled across the dirt arena. It was noisy and involved a lot of black smoke. There contest seemed to be a rivalry between Dodge enthusiasts and Ford fans; as my companion noted, "I'm not seeing a lot of Isuzus."
The two guys next to us in the bleachers spent a good 45 minutes talking about nothing but their own trucks, with a brief conversational tangent about their fathers' trucks.
The fair attracts a truly diverse group of people, from all ages and ethnic backgrounds. This year's fashion statement seemed to be the "Ceciltucky" T-shirt we saw on a number of fairgoers. My curious companion (a reporter in a previous life, or am I rubbing off on him?) actually went up to the T-shirt vendor and asked what the term meant. He explained that it was meant to indicate rural pride.
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